Iranian Professor at University of Chicago Tells VOA: Government Agents Threatened Me with Death in Iran

Professor Abbas Alizadeh, an archaeology professor at the University of Chicago, detailed the harassment and threats he faced from Iranian intelligence agents during his trip to Iran in an interview with VOA. In 1995, Professor Alizadeh obtained permission from Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization to study the lifestyle of the Qashqai nomads and to discover and document ancient mounds along their migration routes. He then researched the formation of complex societies that led to the evolution of governmental institutions in the fourth millennium BC at significant archaeological sites such as Choghamish, Choghabnout, Abufandouh, and Choghadousar in Khuzestan, as well as the Moushaki, Jari, and Bakun mounds in Marvdasht, Fars, until 2005. The results of his research have been published in four books and numerous articles. However, Professor Alizadeh's last trip to Iran in 2021 marked the end of his archaeological research and educational projects. During this trip, he was repeatedly interrogated by Iranian intelligence agents regarding alleged accusations of 'spying for Israel and connections with Mossad' and was even threatened with execution. In an exclusive interview with VOA, Alizadeh described his detention experience, stating, 'Personally, it was very painful when they sat me in front of a wall and threatened me with death in vulgar terms from behind, without seeing their faces.' He added that the most bitter memory from his imprisonment and interrogation would be the 'foolishness and ignorance' of his interrogators. He explained that they knew nothing about history, archaeology, culture, or even international politics, and they did not even understand their own cliché questions, merely repeating what they had been trained to say like robots. Dual nationals are at risk of being taken hostage sooner or later. Professor Alizadeh's connection to Israel dates back to the time of the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War, which displaced many, and with limited options, he went to Israel where he conducted extensive archaeological research. Regarding the accusation of espionage for Israel, Alizadeh told VOA, 'In 2016, the then Deputy Head of Cultural Heritage invited me to Iran to help register Shush as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and afterward, he granted me permission to excavate in Shush, which is the most important archaeological site in Iran. This led several archaeologists to accuse me of spying for Israel, but they couldn't prove anything, although the project was dissolved.' Professor Alizadeh, who had traveled to Iran multiple times during various administrations, explained why he has now decided against returning to Iran: 'My work in Iran was with the Cultural Heritage Organization, which did not have the strictness of other government institutions. Therefore, except for Ahmadinejad's second term, the Cultural Heritage Organization, especially under the presidency of Engineer Beheshti and the vice-presidency of Jalil Golshan, was more willing to open doors for researchers from outside Iran. Until my arrest, there was no reason to fear going to Iran, but if I go again, I will be arrested at the airport. Dual nationals are at risk of being taken hostage sooner or later.' Among Professor Alizadeh's actions during his trips to Iran was that in 2016, he managed to retrieve thousands of pottery pieces from the National Museum of Iran's storage over six months for research, restoration, and cataloging. According to Professor Alizadeh, the inability to return to his homeland, where the 'foundation of his academic life' was, brings him feelings of frustration and depression. He stated, 'I am glad that at least for four decades, I was able to introduce the ancient history of my land to the world.' Professor Alizadeh mentioned that during his last trip to Iran, he had proposed a project titled 'Apprenticeship in Ancient Pottery' to the National Museum to reconstruct the process of teaching ancient pottery masters to their students, which became entangled with the IRGC and multiple interrogations. Now, with his inability to return to Iran, his research and educational projects will not be carried out. Dr. Alizadeh told VOA, 'That project and also my excavation project in Abufandouh, which was a significant center in the fourth millennium BC, will never be executed, and the students I was supposed to teach will not have this experience.' The Achaemenid tablets, which it seems the Islamic Republic detained Professor Alizadeh for attempting to return remnants of them to Iran, are in cuneiform and Elamite language and depict the economic, social, and religious atmosphere of the Achaemenid Empire. In the 1930s, the University of Chicago borrowed about 30,000 tablets found in Persepolis for research. Dr. Alizadeh stated, 'Reza Shah placed great importance on ancient Iran and, in consultation with figures like Mohammad Ali Foroughi and Timurtash, invited the University of Chicago in 1930 [1309] to conduct excavations at Persepolis under the supervision of German Ernst Herzfeld. After Herzfeld, Eric Schmidt became the head of the excavations, and during their time, about 30,000 complete and broken tablets in Elamite script and language were discovered in the treasury and walls of Persepolis. Since there was no specialist in Elamite language in Iran at that time, with Reza Shah's approval, these tablets were transferred to the University of Chicago on loan to be returned to Iran after study.' After the Islamic Revolution and the severance of relations between Iran and the United States, the return of the tablets became problematic. A large portion of these tablets was returned in three batches between 1948 and 2004. Some were confiscated following legal actions by American survivors of the Hamas attack on Israel in 2007. The plaintiffs demanded the confiscation of these tablets and their sale as part of the $71 million compensation that the Iranian government had been condemned to in this case due to its support for Hamas. However, in 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited the confiscation of these artifacts. The re-imposition of U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic further complicated the return of antiquities to Iran. During Dr. Alizadeh's house arrest and interrogations in 2021, the then President of the University of Chicago contacted the President of the National Museum of Iran and threatened that if he did not return safely to America, Iran would never see the 25,000 tablets. Thus, this university professor managed to leave Iran. In September 2023, Ebrahim Raisi, who traveled to New York to attend the UN General Assembly, returned to Iran with 3,506 of these tablets. However, Iranian officials have never officially confirmed this matter. Professor Alizadeh stated, 'These tablets belong to the Iranian nation, and we are obligated to return them to Iran after study, and we have done so until now.' He added that today in Iran, Dr. Majid Arfaei, a graduate of the University of Chicago in Elamite language, is able to continue studying and examining the tablets. The situation created for Professor Alizadeh and the problems that the Islamic Republic caused him have once again brought the Iranian government's efforts to take dual citizens hostage to gain leverage from Western countries into the spotlight. This report was compiled using an exclusive interview, as well as sources such as the University of Chicago website, Chicago Magazine, AFP, and Iranian media.