An Iranian philosopher writes:
I guess you have already heard about the debate on the organisation of the World Philosophy Day in Tehran (see, e.g., this or this). With a number of my colleagues, we are highly troubled about the political turn it has taken. The main problem for us is that Mahmoud Ahmedinejad himself, and some of his close collaborators, are trying to transform this event to a propaganda show in favour of their politics in the academic domain.
Unfortunately, we could not be able to manifest publicly our own reaction to this situation, mainly due to the risk of sanctions. On the other hand, our general position is that a total academic embargo of Iran presents serious disadvantages for us and for our students in the current situation. However, we follow carefully the mobilisation of the Iranian colleagues in other countries and their appeal to boycott this particular event. Such appeals are necessary for reminding international academics of the problematic situation of Iranian universities during the last year.
Since the last presidential elections, hundreds of scholars and students have been arrested and/or dismissed from universities and many university campuses in several cities have been attacked by the Revolutionary Guards. I should also sadly mention that tens of students have been killed during the last year's demonstrations, among whom a young woman, Neda, was a philosophy student, and no judiciary actions have taken place to clarify the circumstances of their deaths.
From the first days of the suppression, the Iranian Supreme Leader pointed to the “Humanities” and “academics” as the main cause and instigators of the popular resistance, and condemned them. Following this condemnation, prosecutors of mass trials in August 2009 went so far to name Max Weber, Jurgen Habermas, John Keane, etc. in their indictments. Since then, the attack on humanities has become a major policy of Ahmadinejad's government. According to new regulations, graduate students admissions and scholar recruitments are centralized in the hand of the government in a way that so-called moral and political evaluations must take place before any academic evaluation. Moreover, several programmes and departments in the human sciences have been discarded.
Despite all these problems, we try to do our work. The World Philosophy Day in Tehran could still be an opportunity for us and for our students to learn more. Our main worry is that, very probably, Ahmedinejad himself will participate in the opening session, make a speech, and hijack the event for his political purposes. As the chief of government, he has employed all means at his disposal to degrade the academic liberties in Iran, particularly in the domain of the Humanities. Given what he has done, his probable participation in the opening session will be an insult to all Iranian scholars and students who have suffered during the last year. Furthermore, considering his past performances on similar occasions, he is likely to deliver a speech about themes like moral values, culture, justice, progress etc. As citizens and members of the academic community of Iran, we condemn his forthcoming talk as pure hypocrisy.
For all these reasons, we want to remind our foreign colleagues who have decided to participate in this event that their vigilance will be highly appreciated.
Recent Comments