THE PRESSURES AGAINST SCIENTISTS IN IRAN
ARE ON THE RISE
It is reported that the Iranian
Government continues to implement strict personal
notification obligation for the academicians who will go
abroad within the scope of scientific researches and
personal trips to the university administration. According
to the decision taken in June, academic personnel, working
in the private and public universities, are obliged to
notify the security offices working in coordination with the
Ministry of Intelligence within the University before going
abroad for scientific study, research, conference, including
personal trips etc. The supplicant shall go abroad if the
approval is given.
Within the scope of this decision taken,
the Rector of the Tehran University Abbas Ali Amid Zenjani
have dismissed professors Hoseyn Basire, Hadi Samti and
Said Sahande on August 24, 2007 under the pretext of “going
abroad without permission”. By the way, the Rector of the
Tehran University Abbas Ali Amid Zenjani has been appointed
to the said mission in 2005 and is known for his close
relationship to Ahmadinejad.
“The arrest of the academician” activity
accelerated in the second semester of the 2007 by the
Iranian Government has been attracting the attention of the
international community. Recently, some people of the
Iranian origin living outside Iran, particularly in the
States and holding a researcher identity were arrested
subsequently. Haleh Esfandiyari, an academician working as a
Middle East Program Director of the “Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars” in the US and Kyan
Tajbakhshi, working in George Soros Open Society Institute
are just the two among the arrestees. Following these
arrests the government is following the
academicians-researchers closely within the country.
The political circles emphasize the
reason of the raise of pressure against intellectuals in the
country placed upon by The Ahmadinejad Government as
“security reasons and the idea that those parts of the
society have been directed by the Western foci of power”. It
is stated that the emphasis on the claim frequently made by
the Iranian high-level officials regarding the transfer of
information given by the academicians to the Western powers
during the conferences and studies they had participated
abroad verifies the developments.
