Iranian Melbourne University professor accused of 'influence' released
Maymont Hosseini Chavoshi, a university professor of demography in Australia, who was recently arrested in Iran, has been released.
Mahmoud Behzadi, a lawyer, told IRNA on Sunday, February 27, that Ms. Chavoshi was released from prison a few days ago.
Ms. Chavoshi, a demographer and researcher at the University of Melbourne, Australia, is a retired expert at the Ministry of Health and has been involved in research and analysis of population and health statistics for that ministry.
He completed his master's and doctorate in demography at the Australian National University using a scholarship from the Iranian Ministry of Health. His doctoral thesis was on patterns of fertility regulation in Iran. After completing his studies, he returned to Iran and retired from the Ministry of Health after a while.
This demographer was invited by the Ministry of Labor, Cooperatives, and Social Welfare and the Welfare Organization to speak at a regional conference on aging in Iran in November of this year. He was arrested after the conference while leaving Iran.
After the arrest of Mement Chavoshi, The Times of Israel wrote in a report: According to state media in Iran, an expert has been arrested on charges of collaborating with spy networks and with the aim of downplaying the demographic crisis in Iran.
Ms. Hosseini is listed as a member of the “Faculty of Population and Global Health” at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She has published numerous articles on fertility and family planning policies, which were once encouraged in Iran.
The Kayhan newspaper, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by Ayatollah Khamenei, also reported at the same time the arrest of several demographic activists who, according to the state-run newspaper, had "attempted to infiltrate various government agencies under the guise of scientific activities."
According to Kayhan, they have manipulated statistics and provided sensitive information to Iran's enemies as part of a cultural and social invasion.
Iran was once an international model in population control, and World Bank data shows that it reduced its birth rate from seven per woman in the 1980s to 1.66 in 2016.
Alireza Marandi, then Iranian Minister of Health, received the United Nations People's Prize in 2000 for his family planning initiatives that were supposed to overcome deep-rooted taboos in an Islamic society.
Mement Chavushi wrote extensively about these efforts in a 2009 book, describing them as “the fastest decline in fertility rates on record.”
But recently, concerns have been raised that the birth rate has fallen below the level of population growth.
In 2012, Ayatollah Khamenei called the continuation of family planning policies of the 1990s a mistake and called for measures to double Iran's population to 150 million.
A report in the Kayhan newspaper states that Iran's enemies are using population experts to counter these efforts and downplay the seriousness of population growth.
Nasrollah Pejmanfar, a representative of the Islamic Consultative Assembly's Cultural Commission, says: "There is evidence that these individuals are linked to Western espionage networks."
The Islamic Republic's security agencies, particularly the IRGC Intelligence Organization, have in recent years arrested a number of Iranians with dual nationality and Iranian citizens residing in other countries on charges of attempting to infiltrate or act as espionage.
The United States and Western countries have called this action by the Iranian government a concession and believe that the Islamic Republic intends to gain concessions from the West by arresting these individuals.
Source: Voice of America
