Correction: While denying the news of Mr. Dr. Haghighat’s expulsion from Mofid University, we sincerely apologize for his absence.
تحریریه ایران گیت
Some reports indicate the expulsion of Dr. Seyed Sadegh Haghighat, a faculty member of Mofid University of Qom. He is a full professor in the Political Science Department at Mofid University and is associated with the domain of religious intellectualism. Some of his writings and outspoken and critical remarks in recent years have been noteworthy. In a television debate on Channel 4, he said, ‘You cannot seek the people’s opinion to establish a government and then, upon gaining power, disregard the people and respond with violence if they oppose.’
Issuance of Expulsion Order from Canada
The reasons for his expulsion by the university president, Dr. Masoud Mousavi Ardabili, who is the son of Ayatollah Karim Mousavi Ardabili, have not been disclosed. Masoud Mousavi Ardabili has been the head of the Mofid Islamic Studies Center in Canada since 2013 and holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Ottawa, and apparently, based on this, has been residing in Canada since 2001. In recent years, six members of the Political Science Department faculty at Mofid University, including Dr. Yousef Khan Mohammadi, the author of the book ‘Political Interpretation in Contemporary Iran’, have been expelled from this university.
It is said that the contracts of the professors at this university are one-year contracts, and the sole decision-maker for renewing the faculty contracts is the university president. So far, under the pretext of not renewing contracts, 8 professors at this university have been expelled.
A New Beginning
The expulsion of university professors began during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and in those years, many renowned professors were forced to leave their university positions for unknown reasons and were replaced by individuals who did not have a strong academic track record. After that incident and its controversies, the issue of expelling university professors was forgotten for a while until, with the re-acquisition of Azad University by conservatives and the rise of the Raisi government, it resurfaced. The expulsion of two prominent figures, Dr. Bijan Abdolkarimi from Azad University and Mohammad Fazeli from Shahid Beheshti University last year, are examples of this.