An Iranian exile group colluded with university officials and a state lawmaker in Arkansas in a relentless, ultimately successful campaign to get an Iranian American professor fired, according to a new lawsuit.
uncertain
professor → collude → lawsuit
Shirin Saeidi, a tenured professor of political science at the University of Arkansas was removed from her post as the director of the school’s King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies in December over social media posts critical of Israel — a move that a national free-speech group criticized in a letter to the university.
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group → remove → university
Despite a unanimous vote by a faculty committee recommending her reinstatement, Saeidi was fired from the university in March, a decision that was upheld in May after an appeal by the professor.
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that → recommend → professor
The firing came after a monthslong campaign by the Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists, an Iranian American group opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
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firing → come → Iran
The group lobbied the university with accusations that Saeidi was working on behalf of the Iranian government and allegations of plagiarism in her doctoral dissertation at Cambridge University — both of which
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Saeidi → lobby → University
Saeidi has strenuously denied.
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Saeidi → deny → ?
“When someone tries to take everything from you, and your identity, your scholarship, your entire labor of your adult life through framing you and lying to the media — it works,” Saeidi told The Intercept.
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Saeidi → try → Intercept
“It makes people doubt you, and this is the big issue with defamation.
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this → make → defamation
So it’s been shocking to experience it, but I was not surprised.”
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I → experience → it
The 15-count suit seeks to void Saeidi’s termination and award her back pay and damages.
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suit → seek → pay
It also aims to overturn Act 721, a law signed in April 2025 by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, which allows the state to cut off public funds to any academic institution found to have allowed or failed to act against antisemitism.
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state → aim → antisemitism
Ultimately, it was that mechanism of state authority — combined with pressure on the university from a state senator — that appears to have driven Saeidi’s dismissal, according to Badria Mryyan, one of the attorneys representing her.
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that → combine → her
“This law is a really good example of a limitation on free speech disguised as equal protection,” Mryyan said.
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Mryyan → disguise → protection
“Act 721 is a deterrent of free speech and a deterrent of academic freedom, and it’s clear to us that the university had a real fear response to any mention of Act 721, but particularly when it was coming from legislators.
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it → ’ → legislators
The drive to get Saeidi fired from her job came amid a broader push to target Iranian and Iranian American academics and journalists — one that for years has featured violent death threats and highly personal attacks on people arguing for diplomacy with the Iranian government.
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that → get → government
With President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, however, these attacks have gained more purchase as they dovetailed with the administration’s focus on left-wing and pro-Palestine academics and activists.
“This is a case of a person expressing their viewpoints on their own personal Twitter pages, and when an investigation was conducted to see if they violated university rules, the university employees said no,” said Leonard Bright, a professor of public service and administration at Texas A&M.
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Bright → gain → A&M.
“For the university president to come and override that, that’s highly disturbing, and it compromises the faculty member’s freedom to speak her mind about issues of public concern.
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it → come → concern
And that reaction is certainly going to chill other faculty members’ willingness to address difficult topics.”
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reaction → go → topics
“I No Longer Feel Safe”
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I → feel → ?
The campaign against Saeidi was spearheaded by Lawdan Bazargan, who is listed as the AAIRIA’s director in publicly filed documents, according to the lawsuit.
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who → spearhead → lawsuit
The organization, which describes itself as a “group of former political prisoners in Iran, families of executed political prisoners, human rights activists who work (seeking) justice and accountability,” has mounted a number of similar campaigns against Iranian and Iranian American academics and journalists who it accuses of supporting the Iranian government.
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it → describe → government
In a statement to The Intercept, Bazargan rejected the idea that she had conspired with others to secure Saeidi’s termination.
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she → reject → termination
“I categorically deny the allegations that I defamed Dr. Shirin Saeidi or participated in any secret conspiracy or collusion with Benjamin Weinthal, Senator Dan Sullivan, or University of Arkansas officials to have her terminated,” Bazargan wrote.
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Bazargan → deny → Arkansas
“The suggestion that there was some coordinated conspiracy among us is simply false.
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suggestion → be → us
We publicly raised concerns and asked institutions, elected officials, and journalists to examine them.
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We → raise → them
What they chose to do afterward was entirely their decision.”
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chose → choose → What
Fired from her job, forced to defend herself against allegations of serious misconduct, Saeidi said her life has been upended by the campaign against her.
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life → fire → her
“This is really damaging to not just my career, but to my life,” she said.
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she → say → life
“I had to leave Arkansas because I no longer feel safe.
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I → have → Arkansas
People that go to my child’s school, people that I see at the grocery store, people that see me at the gym — they think I’m a terrorist.”
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I → go → gym
Now, Saeidi is hitting back with the lawsuit.
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Saeidi → hit → lawsuit
In the 88-page complaint filed Monday evening in federal court in Arkansas, Saeidi and her lawyers accused the Iranian American pressure group, university officials, GOP state Sen. Dan Sullivan, and Jerusalem-based pro-Israel pundit Ben Weinthal of colluding in a defamatory conspiracy against her right to free speech motivated by Islamophobia and a desire to stamp out pro-Palestine speech.
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Saeidi → file → speech
“Dr. Shirin Saeidi, because of her work in her field and her advocacy and protected speech, was subject to a coordinated harassment campaign that was able to take advantage of a broader attack on academic freedom at the federal and state levels,” said Connor Thompson, one of the attorneys representing Saeidi.
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Thompson → coordinate → Saeidi
“We are hoping to vindicate the rights of our client, who has really had her life ruined.”
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life → hop → client
Neither a spokesperson for the University of Arkansas nor Dan Sullivan, the state senator named in the lawsuit, responded to requests for comment.
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spokesperson → name → comment
Raft of Allegations
Bazargan began targeting Saeidi on March 24, 2025, by submitting a formal complaint to the chancellor of the University of Arkansas.
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Bazargan → target → Arkansas
The following day, Bazargan appeared on an Israeli news program accusing Saeidi and other professors in the U.S. of supporting the Iranian government.
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Bazargan → appear → government
The group’s accusations against Saeidi initially centered on the professor’s testimony in a Swedish trial against an Iranian official accused of having a hand in the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988.
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accusations → center → 1988
Bazargan’s brother, she said, was killed in the mass execution.
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she → say → execution
In the ensuing months, Bazargan wrote numerous letters to university officials, many of which she posted online, accusing Saeidi of expressing “open admiration for Iran’s Supreme Leader” and being “ideologically aligned with Hezbollah” — a federally designated terror group.
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she → ensue → Hezbollah
…and 60 more, not listed.
The Aporia
