Dozens of Professors Dismissed in Two Years of Raisi’s Rule

At least 52 professors have been terminated from Iranian universities over the two years of Ebrahim Raisi's administration, local media reported. 

A report by Etemad newspaper found that the majority of the professors who were dismissed were from Azad, Tehran, Tehran Medical Sciences, Allameh Tabatabaei, and Shahid Beheshti universities.

Etemad's investigation indicated that the dismissals were carried out on political grounds, with the aim of silencing critical voices within the academic community.

The report also cited an anonymous source who said that the purge of academic personnel from medical sciences universities started a few weeks after the start of Raisi administration.

The source added that the move was aimed at recruiting graduates from the medical community who aligned with the cabinet and the government.

University officials have denied that the dismissals were politically motivated, but the Ministry of Interior's information center has obliquely acknowledged political factors in this context.

The ministry's statement conveyed that the dismissal of professors by the Ministry of Science is deemed a "revolutionary duty of this ministry."

Last week, Etemad published a report that identified 157 university professors who were fired from their positions during the administrations of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hassan Rouhani, and Ebrahim Raisi.

It was able to identify 85 professors who were fired during the Ahmadinejad administration, 14 professors who were fired under Rouhani, and 58 professors who were dismissed in just the two years of the Raisi administration.

The Union of Iranian University Professors has condemned the dismissals.

The union warned that disrespecting the dignity of professors and compromising university independence would inflict irreparable harm on the country's academic institutions.