PHILADELPHIA — December 22, 2025 — A grassroots campaign led by Iranian-American activists and supported by the Middle East Forum (MEF) compelled the University of Arkansas to remove Shirin Saeidi as director of the school’s King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies and consider firing her for cause.
Saeidi’s dean demoted her for allegedly violating university policies, citing her unabashed support for Ayatollah Khamenei and Iran’s regime, her misuse of university letterhead to defend a convicted war criminal, and for posting “inflammatory” social media messages calling for Israel to “be dismantled.”
A spokesman for the Iranian Judiciary reiterated the regime’s support for Saeidi, praising her “enlightening, human-centered, and humanitarian voice” and denouncing “the interests of world-devourers.”
Almost 4,000 people signed a petition calling for Saeidi’s removal created by the Alliance Against Islamic Republic of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA) and distributed to the MEF Action network of grassroots advocates.
Her value to the Iranian regime’s propaganda apparatus is clear by Tehran’s outraged response, as Iran’s judiciary—responsible for the arbitrary arrest, torture, and execution of countless Iranian citizens, including for vague crimes such as “enmity against God”—has condemned the university repeatedly this week.
“The removal and dismissal of Iranian professors and those who oppose the crimes of the genocidal and child-killing Zionist regime in Western universities shows that what is promoted in the West under the guise of freedom of expression,” said Nasser Seraj, secretary of the Iranian Judiciary’s Human Rights Headquarters.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Iranian Judiciary reiterated the regime’s support for Saeidi, praising her “enlightening, human-centered, and humanitarian voice” and denouncing “the interests of world-devourers.” The state-controlled Tehran Times decried the move as an assault on academic freedom.
“The Islamic Republic’s crocodile tears for the supposed lack of academic freedom in Western democracies reeks of hypocrisy,” said Benjamin Baird, director of MEF Action. “Iran’s gender apartheid regime suspended, expelled, and arrested dozens of university professors following the nationwide Woman, Life, Freedom protests that gripped the country in 2023 and replaced them with unqualified regime lackeys.”
Saeidi is the third regime-linked professor over the past year who was suspended, retired under pressure, or demoted as a result of MEF’s work with Iranian American dissidents.
Saeidi’s troubles aren’t over yet. In an exclusive report at the New York Post, MEF writing fellow Benjamin Weinthal revealed that Cambridge University Press, which published Saeidi’s 2022 book based on her doctoral research, confirmed it is “investigating these serious allegations” concerning claims of unauthorized use of interview material. On Tuesday, Saeidi reportedly received a second letter from the dean’s office noting that the University of Arkansas was considering firing her from her tenured faculty position.
MEF monitors and safeguards against Iranian regime influence in American mosques, nonprofit institutions, and universities. Saeidi is the third regime-linked professor over the past year who was suspended, retired under pressure, or demoted as a result of MEF’s work with Iranian American dissidents.
“When a repressive regime that tortures and executes its own citizens rushes to defend one of its apologists abroad, it confirms we are hitting the right targets,” said Gregg Roman, MEF’s executive director. “To the regime’s proxies who remain as faculty at America’s universities: your days of operating with impunity are numbered. We will continue exposing and dismantling this network until we rid America’s campuses of Tehran’s toxic influence.”
The Middle East Forum, a nonprofit organization, promotes American interests in the region and protects Western civilization from Islamism. MEF accomplishes its mission through intellectual and activist efforts. Subscribe to the MEF mailing list here.
For more information, visit www.meforum.org.
For immediate release
For more information, contact:
Gregg Roman
roman@meforum.org
+1 (215) 546 5406
