Rafsanjani: A Group of Illiterate and Sloganeering People are Creating Obstacles

The head of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, stated that individuals he described as 'illiterate and slogan-mongering' are hindering the activities of educated and well-meaning expatriates. According to the state news agency IRNA, Rafsanjani made these remarks on Thursday, May 31, during the 33rd anniversary of the founding of Azad University, saying, 'We are facing a group of illiterate and slogan-mongering individuals who create obstacles in affairs.' He added, 'These illiterate and slogan-mongering individuals prevent many good, patriotic, and caring educated people from abroad from coming and being useful for the country.' Rafsanjani emphasized that these individuals make accusations based on appearances, such as claiming someone was unveiled at a meeting or that their spouses have been seen unveiled. He continued, 'They should close the humiliating paths and allow our educated professors abroad to come and assist us in research, as research is very important.' Previously, on May 29, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani emphasized the importance of Iranian elites returning from abroad, stating, 'Someone comes, and for a trivial reason, they take their passport and question them. Who are you to question a specialist? Why do some officials feel they have this much right?' These statements come amid reports that some Iranian specialists have been arrested upon returning to Iran and remain imprisoned. Notable cases include Omid Kokabi, a Sharif University graduate and postdoctoral atomic physics student at the University of Texas, who was arrested in February 2011 while leaving Iran and is still imprisoned. Eighteen Nobel laureates wrote an open letter in October 2014 to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, calling for the release of this 32-year-old physicist. Meanwhile, Hamid Babaei, a doctoral student at the University of Liège in Belgium, was arrested after visiting Iran in August 2013 and was sentenced to six years in prison on charges such as 'endangering national security' and 'communicating with hostile countries, including Belgium.' In another part of his speech, Rafsanjani stated, 'Azad University is growing and self-sufficient, needing nothing, and they should only not create disturbances for it.' The head of the Azad University Board added, 'Our unit heads are delayed for a long time in obtaining approval from the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution to receive this approval, but it shouldn't be this way, and they should let the university do its work.' Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran, criticized Azad University from the early months of his administration, and ultimately, after much struggle over the dismissal of Abdollah Jasbi, the former head of Azad University, Farhad Daneshjou, the brother of Kamran Daneshjou, Ahmadinejad's Minister of Science, was appointed to lead Azad University in March 2012 with government support. After Hassan Rouhani's administration came to power, the Azad University Board dismissed Farhad Daneshjou on September 18, 2013, and appointed Hamid Mirzadeh as the university's caretaker.