Forced Transfer of a Student, Suspension of a University Professor; Pressure on Academics in Iran Continues

Continuing the pressure from the Islamic Republic on protesting students and professors supporting student rights, a decree has been issued for the transfer of another student, and a professor at Beheshti University has been suspended. According to the Telegram channel of the National Council of Student Unions, Niloufar Mirzaei, a graphic design student at Alzahra University, has been sentenced by the Central Committee of the Ministry of Science to transfer her place of study to Yazd University. This protesting student was sentenced to a two-semester temporary ban from studying after being arrested in November 2022. According to the legal advisory website Dadban, university officials have continued to prevent her from entering the university this summer despite the expiration of her study ban, telling her that she is not qualified to return to the university and continue her studies. Based on an audio file published on the Telegram channel of the National Council of Student Unions, Alzahra University officials have also refused to provide her with the decree for her forced transfer to Yazd University. The National Council of Student Unions also reported the continued process of 'cleansing universities of non-aligned professors' with the suspension of Yadollah Dadgar, a professor at the Beheshti University Faculty of Economics and a supporter of protesting students. According to this report, this suspended professor was among those who, during the nationwide protests of 2022, expressed support for students in an open letter to the president of Beheshti University. The union reported that the Economics Department of Beheshti University has removed all of Yadollah Dadgar's courses without providing any explanation. In recent days, at least three critical professors supporting protesting students have been dismissed. Additionally, the university officials have not provided any explanation regarding the dismissal of Masoud Aliya and Fereshteh Hosseini-Shakib, professors at the University of Art, and Parisa PourMohammadi, an archaeology professor at Shiraz University. According to Mohsen Barahani, a suspended professor at Tehran University, the government of Ebrahim Raisi had been planning to limit universities and dismiss professors days before the killing of Mahsa Amini in police custody and the beginning of nationwide protests. This law professor stated on October 5 to the Etemad newspaper that a month after Raisi's government took office, a decree was issued to deal with critical professors. Media and officials of the Islamic Republic have defended the dismissals, claiming they are legal and citing various reasons, including the end of professors' contracts. Kazem Alamdari, a sociologist and university professor, believes the widespread dismissal of professors is due to the Islamic Republic's fear of public awareness.