At the cusp of the reopening of universities and on the anniversary of the 2022 nationwide uprising, Iran’s regime has intensified its attacks on the university from different directions. On the one hand, the mass dismissal of “critical” professors and replacing them with aligned elements, or as one academician put it, “mechanical injection of fake professors” and on the other hand, the expulsion of a large number of students from universities and filling the vacancies with regime loyalists.
On August 27, the state-run Roydad newspaper wrote, “The expulsion of professors is taking on a fast pace and all professors whom officials consider as critics will be expelled on various pretexts, including retirement and lack of scientific potency.”
On August 27, the state-run Entekhab newspaper, has pointed to this trend with the titles “All universities become like Imam Sadegh” (a reference to Imam Sadegh University, which is one of the main educational institutions where the regime’s future officials are groomed and trained) and “Purification is going fast.”
This obvious aggression of the government is so scandalous that it caused some of its institutions and elements to react and fueled the war within the regime itself:
In a statement, the Union of University Professors, referring to the widespread dismissal of professors, wrote, “Hundreds of cases in this regard are currently suspended in various universities under the pretext of signing a statement or commenting by the professors, and several faculty members in various universities have either been expelled or are on the verge of being expelled.”
The statement further states, “In paragraph 5 of the resolution of the National Security Council, the Ministries of Science and Health are asked to arrange the recruitment of 15,000 faculty members in line with these anti-independence movements of the university. In this letter, the faculty members are introduced as the biggest cause of the unrest in 2022.”
In the meantime, conflict between regime factions and defections have intensified. Mohammad Reza Aref, one of the members of the so-called “reformist” faction and vice president during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, who is the head of the union of university professors, in protest against “governing trend of recruitment committees in universities” resigned from his position from the recruitment committee of Sharif University. In his resignation letter, Aref wrote, “The process that is governing the university recruitment boards actually causes elites to leave universities, and furthermore, it is unfortunate that some outside institutions sometimes interfere in the decision-making of the recruitment board.”
Aref is referring to security institutions of the regime. According to the documents exposed by the “Uprising to Overthrow” Telegram channel, the Supreme National Security Council passed a resolution in January and ordered “Academic recruitment boards of universities to be aligned with the Islamic revolution.”
According to some other documents, in an intelligence-security committee (consisting of nine intelligence-security institutions) that was formed during December 2022 to February of 2022 under the responsibility of Hossein Salami, the head of the IRGC, decisions were made against defiant students and non-aligned professors, which now are being implemented.
Therefore, expelling and purging university professors and faculty members and replacing them with fake professors is part of a security plan and program to control universities.
Two of these fake professors have been introduced in regime’s media; One of them is a well-known torturer/journalist named Amirhossein Sabeti, who is the host of the regime’s Ofogh TV channel, that as a guest professor at Sharif University will teach “Islamic Revolution”, and the other one is an torturer/journalist named Abbas Mozon, who will teach “Rule of Life” at Sharif University.
The plan and program of the regime to undermine the importance of the university is not limited to firing professors and replacing them with fake professors.
On August 28, state-run Etemad newspaper reported that after “great purge of professors,” the regime is trying to change the rules of admission of students to universities “based on political-religious qualifications.” The important tool this year for executing this process will be through the disciplinary committees of the universities. In the next years, different quotas will be applied to the entry of students to universities by evaluation organization after this institution is transferred to the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution.
While regime is on the shrinking state, having blade on the university’s throat, it will deepen its isolation in the society. This is the inevitable path for medieval regime, which sees its existence in conflict with the university. Khomeini in his hateful statements against the university confirmed it. Therefore, in this proceeding when there is an explosive society and revolutionary resistance, the mullahs’ rule is doomed to fail.