Judiciary faults US sacking of Iranian professor over support for Palestine
Iran's Judiciary rebuked on Sunday the dismissal of an Iranian professor at Arkansas University over support for the Islamic Republic and Palestine as yet another clear example of the violation of human rights by the US government.
"The firing of this Iranian professor from the university for defending the oppressed people of Palestine is another disgrace for United States in violating human rights," said Nasser Seraj, the deputy for the Iranian Judiciary’s International Affairs and secretary of the Human Rights Headquarters.
"The removal and dismissal of Iranian professors and those who oppose the crimes of the genocidal and child-killing Zionist regime in Western universities shows that what is promoted in the West under the guise of freedom of expression and academic space is more just a show and anti-human rights cover rather than reality.”
Seraj underlined that, "Such examples in the West show that freedom of expression and democracy are nothing but all talks, and anything that contradicts their demands, even at the scientific or civic level, is met with restrictions and expulsion.”
The University of Arkansas fired Shirin Saeidi from her position as director of the Middle Eastern Studies department over her social media posts in solidarity with Iran and Palestine.
Speaking to The New York Post newspaper on Friday, a spokesman for the University of Arkansas announced Saeidi’s suspension, adding, however, that she still retains her position as a political science professor at the school.
The measure, which raises serious concerns about academic free speech, came after the university came under pressure from anti-Iran figures and the Zionist lobby.
In several X posts in November, the professor praised Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and offered prayers for his safety.
She also hailed Ayatollah Khamenei as “the leader who kept Iran intact during the Israeli attack,” referring to the illegal US-backed aggression against the country in June.
In separate posts on X, she condemned Israel as a “terrorist” and a “genocidal” regime.
Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to the Israeli regime, has attacked Saeidi for her pro-Palestine stance, claiming the professor “would probably be better suited to being given a one-way ticket to Tehran.”
In March, an Iranian scholar at Yale Law School was fired for her outspoken criticism of Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip.
Helyeh Doutaghi condemned the move as a normalization of “fascistic governance” at top universities in the US.