#FireSaeidi Campaign
The Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA) launched the #FireSidi campaign to seek justice for survivors of the 1988 massacre in Iran and to hold University of Arkansas professor Shirin Saeidi accountable for her support of a convicted war criminal and alleged fabrication of survivors’ testimonies in her scholarship. This campaign builds on years of work by former political prisoners, families of the executed, and human rights advocates who refuse to allow the crimes of the Islamic Republic, or the whitewashing of those crimes, to go unanswered.
Background: The 1988 Massacre
In the summer of 1988, the Islamic Republic of Iran carried out mass extrajudicial executions of political prisoners across the country’s prisons, targeting activists and dissidents who had already been tried, sentenced, and in many cases had nearly completed their terms. Acting on a fatwa by Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, so‑called “Death Commissions” subjected prisoners to sham “re‑trials” that lasted only minutes before sending thousands to the gallows. Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have described these mass killings as ongoing crimes against humanity, and survivors and families have spent decades documenting unmarked mass graves, names, and testimonies in the face of official denial and erasure.
Hamid Nouri and the Pursuit of Justice
One of the men implicated in the 1988 mass killings, Hamid Nouri, was arrested in Sweden in November 2019 under the principle of universal jurisdiction. In 2022, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes and murder for his role in the torture and execution of political prisoners at Gohardasht Prison. Nouri’s trial marked a historic moment for survivors and victims’ families, who provided harrowing testimony about torture, enforced disappearances, and mass hangings inside the Islamic Republic’s prisons. For these survivors, any attempt to rewrite history or deny the well-documented 1988 fatwa issued by Khomeini, documented by the United Nations, Amnesty International, and other human rights organizations, and confirmed by leaders of the Islamic Republic itself, represents a direct attack on their pursuit of justice and on the memory of those who were executed.
Saeidi’s Support for a Convicted War Criminal
Despite the gravity of Nouri’s crimes, University of Arkansas professor Shirin Saeidi used official university letterhead to lobby Swedish authorities on his behalf, seeking relief for a man convicted of overseeing mass executions of political prisoners. This intervention, carried out under the imprimatur of a public American university, not only trivialized the suffering of survivors but also lent academic legitimacy to efforts to undermine a landmark accountability process. AAIRIA obtained and shared the letter as part of a broader effort to expose how academic credentials and institutional platforms are being used to normalize or excuse perpetrators of atrocities tied to the Islamic Republic.
Allegations of Fabrication and Academic Misconduct
Beyond the letter attributed to Ms. Nouri, serious and deeply troubling allegations have emerged concerning Saeidi’s 2022 book, Women and the Islamic Republic: How Gendered Citizenship Conditions the Iranian State, which is based on her 2011 doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Cambridge. The book is alleged to rely on fabricated, distorted, or non-consensual representations of the testimonies of former political prisoners. Multiple survivors named and quoted in the work have submitted sworn statements affirming that they were never interviewed, never granted permission for the use of their names or life stories, and that central elements of their lived experiences were altered in ways that fundamentally misrepresent the reality of Iran’s prisons and the violence of the Islamic Republic.
These are women who spent years behind bars, endured torture, whipping, and systematically inhuman conditions, yet never bent before the regime that sought to break them. By appropriating and altering their words, Saeidi is accused of instrumentalizing their suffering to support a thesis aligned with narratives favorable to the Islamic Republic. Such actions do not merely constitute academic misconduct; they strip survivors of their dignity, mischaracterize their moral and political stance, and reopen wounds that were earned through survival. The result is not only reputational harm, but the re-traumatization of victims whose voices were taken from them once again and repurposed without consent.
AAIRIA has also submitted evidence that Saeidi’s research benefited from resources and assistance connected to the Islamic Republic’s ideological and propaganda apparatus, raising profound concerns about foreign state influence and the ethical integrity of her scholarship.
Institutional Responses to Date
Following months of complaints and documentation submitted by former political prisoners, families of victims, and AAIRIA, the University of Arkansas removed Saeidi from her position as Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and initiated proceedings that may lead to the termination of her professorship. In parallel, Cambridge University Press opened a formal investigation into allegations of academic misconduct in Saeidi’s book, including the use of non‑consensual or fabricated interviews and misrepresented sources. These developments mark important, though incomplete, steps toward accountability for the misuse of survivors’ stories and the abuse of academic authority to sanitize or downplay the crimes of the Islamic Republic.
Our Campaign: #FireSaeidi
AAIRIA, together with survivors of the 1988 massacre, families of the executed, and allied human rights advocates, launched the #FireSaeidi campaign with clear demands directed at the University of Arkansas and the University of Cambridge. The campaign combines documentation, public education, and coordinated advocacy to ensure that universities do not serve as safe havens for individuals who support convicted war criminals or exploit the suffering of survivors for career advancement.
Key components of the campaign include:
- Public statements and press outreach documenting Saeidi’s support for Hamid Nouri, her record of political advocacy aligned with the Islamic Republic, and the testimonies of survivors challenging the integrity of her work.
- Submission of detailed complaints and evidence to the University of Arkansas, Cambridge University, and Cambridge University Press outlining alleged fabrication, misrepresentation, and ethical violations.
- Collaboration with survivor networks, legal experts, and allied organizations to amplify the voices of former political prisoners whose experiences have been misused or erased.
Campaign Milestones
Over the course of the campaign, AAIRIA and its partners have achieved several important milestones.
- The University of Arkansas removed Saeidi as Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and acknowledged concerns regarding her use of official letterhead in connection with the Nouri case.
- Cambridge University Press formally opened an investigation into her book, recognizing the seriousness of the allegations brought forward by survivors and advocates.
- Thousands of people have joined petitions and public calls urging the University of Arkansas and Cambridge to take decisive action in line with their own research integrity and ethics policies.
These milestones demonstrate that sustained, evidence‑based advocacy can force institutions to confront uncomfortable truths about how their platforms are used in relation to the Islamic Republic’s crimes.
Next Steps
The removal of Saeidi from her leadership role at the University of Arkansas and the opening of formal investigations into her work represent significant victories for survivors who have fought for decades to have their stories heard accurately and respectfully. Yet as long as Saeidi remains in a position of academic authority and her work continues to circulate without correction, the damage to survivors and to the historical record remains ongoing. For AAIRIA and the survivors it works with, partial measures are not enough when the integrity of testimony about crimes against humanity is at stake.
The #FireSaeidi campaign will continue until there is full accountability for Saeidi’s support of a convicted war criminal and for the alleged fabrication and misuse of survivors’ testimonies. AAIRIA is calling for a series of concrete actions from the University of Arkansas, the University of Cambridge, and Cambridge University Press.
AAIRIA’s demands include:
- Permanent termination of Saeidi’s employment at the University of Arkansas for gross ethical violations, including providing support for a convicted perpetrator of the 1988 massacre using institutional letterhead.
- A full and independent investigation into how Saeidi was appointed Director of the King Fahd Center, even though her book had not yet been published and her academic publication record was notably weak. This investigation must determine who facilitated her appointment, why this appointment was made, and what benefits, institutional or otherwise, were gained as a result.
- A formal investigation by the FBI into Saeidi’s financial activities, including her family’s accounts, to determine whether she received any direct or indirect compensation, benefits, or inducements from the Islamic Republic of Iran in connection with her interference in the Hamid Nouri case.
- Full and transparent investigations by the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Press into allegations of fabrication, misrepresentation, and foreign state influence in Saeidi’s PhD dissertation and published work, with appropriate sanctions up to and including revocation of her doctorate and withdrawal of the book if violations are confirmed.
- Official apologies from the University of Arkansas, the University of Cambridge, and Cambridge University Press to the survivors and families whose experiences were used without consent or distorted in academic publications.
- Adoption and enforcement of stronger institutional policies to prevent collaboration, direct or indirect, with individuals or entities acting on behalf of the Islamic Republic’s propaganda and ideological apparatus, particularly in research involving vulnerable populations and survivors of state violence.
- The University of Arkansas and the University of Cambridge must organize public panels, lectures, and academic forums addressing the full scope of atrocities committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran throughout the 1980s, including the mass executions of 1988. These forums must bring together survivors, families of the victims, legal experts, and individuals directly involved in documenting the Hamid Nouri trial, with the purpose of formally recording these crimes, informing the public, and preventing future efforts by so-called academics to whitewash the Islamic Republic’s atrocities or distort historical truth.
The #FireSaeidi campaign is rooted in a simple principle: academic freedom cannot serve as a shield for those who support war criminals or fabricate the testimonies of survivors. Justice for the victims of the 1988 massacre and other crimes committed by the Islamic Republic over the past 46 years demands not only legal accountability for perpetrators such as Hamid Nouri, but also ethical accountability for those who misuse academic institutions to whitewash the regime’s crimes.
