Deputy Minister of Science Says Disciplinary Actions Against Expelled Students Have Been Violated

The Student Affairs Organization states that after reviewing several student cases, the decisions made by disciplinary committees have been violated, and expelled students will return to universities. On Friday, October 5, Saeed Habibian, Deputy Minister of Science and Head of the Student Affairs Organization, announced the mechanism for the reinstatement of expelled students in a circular sent to universities. The circular does not specify the number of these students or the reasons for their expulsion, but it states that the reviewed cases 'face multiple legal flaws that violate previous decisions.' This comes less than three weeks after Hossein Simayi Sarraf, the Minister of Science, Research, and Technology, stated that the return of detained students and professors with legal cases is the responsibility of the Judiciary's task force. The Minister of Science also expressed doubts about the Judiciary's re-examination of cases. Following the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests in 2022, pressures on protesting students and supporting professors intensified, leading to the expulsion or suspension of many protesting students, with many facing disciplinary, security, and legal cases. The return of expelled professors and students to universities was one of the electoral promises of Masoud Pezeshkian during his presidential campaign. He and his first deputy, Mohammad Reza Aref, have repeatedly promised the return of expelled or suspended professors and students after the new government's establishment. However, on September 16, the Minister of Science announced that the President's and his deputy's orders were merely 'to give another opportunity to review the complaints of students and professors regarding their expulsion and suspension status.' On the first day of the current academic year in Iran, a group of expelled or suspended professors also sent an open letter to Masoud Pezeshkian, stating that despite his remarks about the return of expelled professors to universities, no 'effective action has been taken in this regard.' There are no precise statistics on the number of professors expelled, suspended, or forcibly retired for political, ideological reasons, or non-alignment with the government of Ebrahim Raisi in recent years, but in September 2023, some media outlets published a list of at least 52 expelled professors from Iranian universities, indicating that a new wave of professor expulsions began at the start of Ebrahim Raisi's government in 2021. Universities were significant centers of protest during the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests, and many students later refused to comply with mandatory hijab regulations in their university environments in solidarity with civil protests in society. Student protests often faced government forces attacking universities, beating, and detaining protesting students, with reports indicating that over 700 students were detained. In addition to expulsions, suspensions, and the exile of some protesting students by the university disciplinary committee, some detained students were also sentenced to imprisonment, travel bans, and even lashes by revolutionary courts.