The Suspension of Tehran University Music Professor Under Medicalian's Government is Finalized

Azin Mohadd, the suspended professor at Tehran University, states that just a few months after the inauguration of Masoud Pezeshkian's government, her suspension order was finalized last week. Ms. Mohadd is a musician, flute player, and university professor. This music instructor, who has been suspended from teaching since last autumn, told Khabar Online on Saturday, October 13: "Last week, I was informed by phone that the preliminary ruling of a six-month temporary suspension issued on November 4, 2023, which had been pending for a long time, has finally been confirmed, and the final ruling for a six-month suspension will be enforced, meaning I will not return to the university until Farvardin 1404 (March 2025)." Ms. Mohadd has been banned from teaching since autumn 1401 (2022) due to her support for the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests, which had widespread momentum in universities, and her support for students facing security crackdowns. She stated that she has not attended classes since then. When asked if Masoud Pezeshkian's government had followed up on her issue, she answered negatively, adding: "On October 25, 2024, I received a call from the university's disciplinary commission office informing me that my ruling had been finalized." Azin Mohadd listed accusations against her including "encouraging students to hold illegal gatherings, encouraging students to remove their hijab, collaborating with anti-revolutionary elements, signing statements in support of rioters, actions contrary to the regime, removing hijab, closing classes, and inciting students and rioters." She dismissed these accusations as "nonsense" that, according to her, had "no evidence or proof," and referred to Mohammad Moqimi, the former president of Tehran University, stating that he "allowed security forces to enter the university under the pretext of Basij students to create crises or for the security and disciplinary committee to violate students' legitimate rights." This music professor emphasized: "I was protesting the cruelty that the university president had allowed to happen." Meanwhile, after the protests of 1401, Tehran University officials had blocked her salary for several months, and she reported that her salary was resumed from last autumn, but due to the lack of a ruling, she remained in a state of uncertainty. On the first day of the new academic year in Iran, a group of expelled or suspended professors from universities wrote a letter to Masoud Pezeshkian stating that despite his comments about the return of expelled professors to universities, no "effective action has been taken in this regard." Twelve expelled or suspended professors asked in a letter published on the first of Mehr: "Is there a real will at work, or is this issue only going to be used for propaganda with the return of a handful of professors?" Earlier, on September 1, the Secretary-General of the Islamic Association of University Professors stated that between 80 to 90 university professors were expelled or had their contracts canceled during the previous government, most of them for "trivial reasons" and in some cases for "political reasons and suspicion." According to Mahmoud Sadeghi, 1,500 professors, including himself, have faced issues in obtaining annual promotions due to expressing their opinions on the 1401 protests. Mr. Sadeghi also mentioned that there is no accurate statistics on expelled professors or those whose contracts have been canceled, and some prefer not to have their names included in the statistics.