Universities dominated by security agencies, says unionist

The secretary of the union of Iran’s university professors warned that the Interior Ministry and the National Security Council now dominate the country’s universities, reports Iran International.

“Unfortunately, there has been a lot of government interference at the universities. The power of the Ministry of Science has diminished and it seems it is the Interior Ministry that gives orders to universities,” said Karen Abrinia on Saturday 4 May in an interview with relatively independent news website KhabarOnline.

According to Abrinia, around 200 university professors faced “restrictions” last year, 25 of whom were fired from their positions over their support for the 2022 nationwide uprising triggered by the death in morality-police custody of Mahsa Amini.
Full report on the Iran International site

Meanwhile, a number of Iranian universities, including Shiraz University, have expressed readiness to grant scholarships to the students expelled for pro-Palestine demonstrations in the United States and Europe. Mohammad Moazzeni, the head of Shiraz University, criticised the harsh treatment of student protesters by the police in the US and Europe, saying: “They exert a lot of violence in order to contain this raging movement and have even threatened to expel the students from universities and hinder their employment in the future, and such autocratic methods show the decline of global arrogance.”
Full report on the Tehran Times site