Wave of Faculty Resignations at Iranian Universities or Abstention from Teaching Classes

Following protests and strikes by students at universities across Iran, a number of faculty members have joined protesting students by abstaining from teaching classes, while others have resigned.

One of the first professors to do so was Leili Gole-daran, a faculty member at the Faculty of Performing Arts at Shiraz University of Art, who resigned from her position by publishing a letter in support of popular and student protests.

In this letter, responding to the demands of protesting students who had repeatedly called on university faculty to join them in recent days, she wrote: “Faculty members at any university, except for a negligible few, are all Basij members.”

Students at universities in Tehran and other Iranian cities have repeatedly chanted slogans such as “Streets soaked in blood, our professors choking” during their protests and demonstrations in recent days.

Likewise, Ammar Ashoori, a professor at the Faculty of Art and Architecture at Azad University of Tehran Central Campus, stepped down from his position in support of popular protests.

He wrote that in recent days he has been pressured and threatened by the faculty’s security department due to posts and stories he shared on Instagram.

Gholamreza Shahbazi, a professor of theater at the University of Art and Sooreh, also resigned from his position through a letter in support of people’s and students’ protests.

Farshad Asgari-kia, a professor of cinema and photography at Sooreh University, also announced in a published statement that he will not attend his classes.

He wrote: “At present, attending class for me is like soaking bread in blood and forcing it down the throat. I cannot eat this bread.”

AlirezA Bahraini, Shahram Khozaei, and Azin Movahed, faculty members at Sharif University, also announced in support of the nationwide student strike that they are suspending their classes.

Student union activists at the University of Tehran confirmed on Monday by issuing a statement that some university faculty members have joined the student strike.

Concurrently with the start of the student strike on Monday, protest gatherings were held at some universities including Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran, Chamran University in Ahvaz, Isfahan University of Technology, and the School of Dentistry in Tabriz.

Protesting students have declared that they will abstain from attending classes until security confrontations with students, arrests of protesting students, and the virtualization of education are stopped.

This comes as the arrest of protesting students by security forces continues, with the number of detained students increasing every day.

Also, with the increase in protest gatherings at universities, university officials have decided to change classes from in-person to virtual under the pretext of “considering the situation of non-local students” in order to empty the campuses.

Source: Radio Farda