Government Pressure on Academics; Solmaz Akbarzadeh, Law Professor in Bushehr, Dismissed

Continuing the government's pressure on university professors in Iran, Solmaz Akbarzadeh, a professor at Alzahra University in Bushehr, has been dismissed from the university. According to a report from the Telegram channel 'Coordination Council of Cultural Teachers' Associations of Iran', the university's security sent a text message to Solmaz Akbarzadeh announcing the termination of her collaboration. The message did not mention the reasons for the dismissal of this university professor and lawyer, who had four years of experience teaching legal courses at Alzahra University in Bushehr. Since September 2022, following the widespread protests of 'Women, Life, Freedom', government pressures and interventions in universities and crackdowns on protesting professors and students have intensified. Recently, Zahra Mousavi Khamenei, daughter of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard, who was working as a faculty member in the Faculty of Arts at Alzahra University in Tehran, was also dismissed due to government intervention. Zahra Mousavi had 16 years of teaching experience at Sooreh, Art, and Alzahra universities. Previously, the newspaper 'Jam-e Jam', the press organ of the Islamic Republic's broadcasting organization, referred to the university as 'a breeding ground for opposition' and called on the government of Ebrahim Raisi to more decisively dismiss 'deviant' professors. Members of seven scientific associations in the country warned in a statement last September about 'widespread dismissals of professors and security crackdowns on students', stating that the gradual and currently accelerating 'dissolution' of the institution of science exacerbates the current disastrous inefficiency of the governing system.