December 17, 2025
Cambridge, U.K. & Compton, CA — After months of sustained correspondence and advocacy by the Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA), the University of Arkansas removed Shirin Saeidi from her position as Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and has taken initial steps toward terminating her professorship.
In parallel, Cambridge University Press has formally opened an investigation into allegations of academic misconduct in Saeidi’s 2022 book, Women and the Islamic Republic: How Gendered Citizenship Conditions the Iranian State. This development marks a significant step toward accountability for survivors of the Islamic Republic’s prisons whose experiences and identities were allegedly fabricated or misrepresented in the book.
We welcome Cambridge University Press’s decision to take these allegations seriously. For too long, survivors’ voices have been ignored while their experiences were distorted and used without consent. A rigorous review by an independent committee is essential to restore trust in scholarship on Iran’s revolutionary period.
The investigation follows detailed complaints from multiple former political prisoners cited in Saeidi’s book, who state in sworn affidavits that they never consented to interviews or quotations and that key elements of their accounts were fabricated or selectively altered. AAIRIA has also submitted documentation showing that Saeidi used University of Arkansas letterhead to advocate on behalf of convicted war criminal Hamid Nouri, further raising serious concerns about her professional judgment and academic integrity.
Call for Further Action
While AAIRIA welcomes the Cambridge University Press investigation, we are confident that Dr. Saeidi’s doctoral dissertation, which formed the basis of the book, is likewise fabricated and relies on falsified interviews and misrepresented sources. The research also appears to have benefited from assistance provided by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization, raising serious concerns about foreign state involvement and ideological influence. Accordingly, we call on the University of Cambridge to immediately initiate its own independent review and to take decisive action under its research integrity policies, including the revocation of her Ph.D. if these violations are confirmed.
As scholars and advocates for human rights, we believe in academic freedom, but that freedom must be grounded in respect for truth and the dignity of those whose stories are told. We remain committed to supporting survivors of Iran’s prison system and to holding institutions accountable when their platforms are used to whitewash crimes against humanity
#FireSaeidi
