Grand Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, a prominent so-called “source of emulation” in the holy city of Qom, has said in a speech on January 13 that many Iranian seminary students are thinking of dropping out because they can no longer make ends meet. The most these scholars ever get to live on a month, he said, was two million tomans (US$73), and something ought to be done to supplement their income.
Sobhani also asserted that seminaries must not have “lifelong students”. Instead, he said, those who qualify should be assigned to teach in other cities. This practise has caused controversy in the past: in May 2021, Iran’s biggest teachers’ union issued a statement criticizing Shiite seminary students’ being hired to teach school subjects in which they lacked any experience. Their hiring, the union said, “betrays a non-expert approach to education”, leading to “a lack of trust in scientific institutions, [while] reinforcing the influence of religious seminaries”.
Last year a clergyman by the name of Massoud Shafiei-Kia also complained that many Iranian seminary students are emigrating from Iran, for reasons that included income. In Najaf, Iraq, he said, seminary students were much better-renumerated – and more comfortable, in the absence of a politicized court system that regularly puts dissident clergymen on trial.
In 2018 Ali Khomeini, a grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, moved from Qom seminary to Najaf. One of a reported 400 seminary students to have taken that path, Ali refrained from making any statements to the media about his transfer in a bid to shield himself and his family from repercussions, according to Al-Monitor. But his teacher, Mohammad Reza Naini, revealed in a press statement: “Najaf offers [broader] teaching potential than Qom, for those who seek knowledge.”
“I have more freedom in my educational activities in Najaf,” an Iranian student using a pseudonym told Al-Monitor. “Nobody forces me to adopt a specific political opinion, and teachers do not politically harass me if I take part in a studying session.
“I attended the classes of Ayatollah Yousef Saanei, whose office was shut down by conservative paramilitary groups at Qom seminary in the wake of President Ahmadinejad's election for a second presidential term in Iran. The Society of Qom Seminary Teachers, which is affiliated with the Iranian leadership, issued a fatwa [stating] that Saanei was unfit for religious leadership. He was banned from religious and educational activities.”
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Attacks on Nine Seminaries and Leading Clerics’ Offices
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