In recent days, at least ten lecturers at several universities in Iran were dismissed from their jobs due to their support and participation in the protests that broke out in September 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini. The dismissal of the lecturers has evoked sharp criticism among government critics in the pragmatic and reformist camp. The reformist daily Etemaad warned that firing lecturers for political reasons harms the independence of institutions of higher education and might further exacerbate the “brain drain” crisis besetting the Islamic Republic. Ali Akbar Salehi, the former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and a lecturer at the Sharif University of Technology, warned that the dismissal of the lecturers would lower the academic level of the universities. He noted that universities that prefer to appoint lecturers without academic qualifications cannot be called universities.

In contrast, supporters of the regime in the hardline camp have expressed support for the move. The editor of the radical daily Kayhan, Hossein Shariatmadari, claimed that the decision to fire lecturers who cooperated with the enemies of the Islamic Republic and took an active part in the protests last year is a proper decision. He added that universities in the West are also wont to fire lecturers for their criticism of Israel. The Ministries of the Interior and Science likewise defended the “revolutionary” decision to fire the lecturers on the grounds they did not contribute to science research and preferred media and political activity over academic activity.

This is not the first time that the Iranian authorities are working to “purge” the universities of regime critics. After the Islamic Revolution, lecturers who were suspected of identifying with the previous regime were fired as part of the Islamization process of the higher education system. During the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, several dozen lecturers were suspended from teaching due to their political activities; some were reinstated in universities after the victory of Hassan Rouhani in the 2013 presidential elections. According to Etemaad figures published recently, since 2006 at least 157 university lecturers have been fired due to their political positions.

Despite the criticism against the firing of the lecturers, it seems that the Iranian authorities are determined to continue the policy of civil and political repression, including the purging of universities, in preparation for the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death and the fear of a renewal of the protest.