News & Views item - September 2006

 

 

Whenever You're Depressed About the Government's Attitude Toward Australia's Universities, Spare a Thought For Iranian Academe. (September 6, 2006)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

    The New York Times' Nazila  Fathi reporting from Tehran writes that the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  has "called today for a purge of liberal and secular professors from the country’s universities, IRNA news agency reported."

 

IRNA quoted President Ahmadinejad, "Today, students should shout at the president and ask why liberal and secular university lecturers are present at universities," he said to a group of young conservatives on the occasion of Youth Day. However, while the work to replace secular professors has started he admitted that "bringing change is very difficult. Our educational system has been affected by 150 years of secular thought and has raised thousands of people who hold Ph.D.s. Changing this system is not easy and we have to do it together.

 

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s call for purging secular professors from universities is reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution of 1980-87, during which many liberal and western professors were fired or brought in line with the Islamic revolution’s views. The decisions were carried out by the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council, which is now headed by Mr. Ahmadinejad.

 

And Ms Fathi reports, "For the first time since the 1979 revolution, Mr. Ahmadinejad appointed a cleric to head the Tehran University, the largest university in the country. His appointment sparked several days of protest at the university, and this summer close to 10 popular professors in humanities who were critical of the regime were retired [while] a prominent Iranian-Canadian philosopher, Ramin Jahanbegloo, was released last week after four months in jail on charges of contacts with foreigners and espionage. His arrest was seen as part of an effort to intimidate secular intellectuals and force them into silence."