Letter from Arts Association in Response to Verdicts Against Professors and Students

The Arts Association has reacted to the verdicts issued against professors and students, and has written a letter to the Minister of Science.

Following the dismissal of experienced professors from universities, teaching bans on professors, forced retirement, and the expulsion of some students due to protests, widespread reactions have emerged not only among Iranian professors and even clergy, but also among Iranian professors abroad in response to these repressions and waves of pressure. The regime’s repressive approach to universities, professors, and students has been one of the major reasons for the emigration of intellectuals, students, and professors.

Regarding the issues that have arisen, twelve arts associations of the House of Iranian Artists have reacted to the verdicts issued against professors and students and have written a letter to the Minister of Science, Research and Technology, in which they called for the removal of the security atmosphere in universities, the cessation of violent behavior, the cancellation of all verdicts against professors and students, and their return to universities.

The full text of the aforementioned letter is as follows:

With greetings and respect:

The House of Iranian Artists, consisting of 12 arts associations, considers its main duty and mission to be the protection of the rights of the artistic community and, while reaffirming its positions regarding the events of the past year in the university environment, now, at the beginning of the academic year 1402-1403, calls for its realization.

Following the pursuit of arts organizations and the return of 2 fields of cinema and sculpture from the Faculty of Art to the 1402 national college entrance exam brochure, and as we approach the new academic year, we have seized the opportunity and once again reiterate our demands.

1. Stop the process of dismissing professors and their return to universities. Art professors are the fruit of a society. Renowned and leading figures in art who, in addition to introducing Iranian culture and art to the world, have undertaken the difficult task of educating and training art students. With limited university facilities and meager income, they teach passionately and have given credibility to gray classrooms and worn-out chairs.
2. An art professor is the product of years of study and research, experience, and artistic living. They cannot be made overnight through quota, bribery, and connections. Professors of culture and art have no substitutes or alternatives, and the loss of any one of them is the extinction of a star that deprives the sky of art of its existence. Professors are the most influential and important members of the artistic community, and the protection of their rights is the main mission of arts organizations.
3. Cancellation of verdicts of suspension, banishment, and deprivation of education for students. The art student is creative, brave, and questioning. They have come to become the most sensitive member of society—an artist. They have come to work in the most open space possible—art. They question the obvious and rediscover it. “They split the ceiling of the world and create a new design.” They consciously understand the pain of their own society and consider human feelings and emotions their most important concern. Students are the designers of the future and the realizers of Iran’s art vision. The artistic community demands students’ rights and considers the care of its children the most obvious of its duties.
4. Creating a secure environment for dialogue, criticism, and protest in universities. The university is the most fundamental institution of a civil society, and art universities are the arena for the maximum expression of civil freedoms. Encouraging free thought, respecting pluralism, and recognizing diverse opinions, rights-seeking, freedom of speech, and the possibility of civil protest are among the obvious necessities of the university environment. What distinguishes a university from other educational centers is not its architectural form or structure, nor its entrance and the title on its door, but rather a flexible structure that enables the encounter and coexistence of professor and student to create opportunities and possibilities for experience and growth in a secure environment. Universities are the torches of the path and guardians of the history of art in this land, and their protection is the responsibility of all of us.

Dear Minister of Science, Research and Technology, students’ criticism and protests through dialogue, sit-ins, creating artistic works, music, songs, and so forth in the university environment are striking and elevated examples of civil protest that not only deserve no punishment and reproach but are worthy of praise and encouragement. Reconsider the way universities are run, for opening a secure space for dialogue is the only and only way to prevent violence.

We, the houses and associations that are members of the House of Iranian Artists, seriously demand the removal of the security atmosphere in universities, the cessation of violent behavior, the cancellation of all unjust verdicts, and the removal of deprivations from professors and their return to universities, as well as the removal of all restrictions, deprivations, and penalties against art students.