Teaching Comparative

Xenophobia in Iranian politics

I'd take this news as evidence of a continuing political struggle between the radicals and the moderates among the Iranian elite. It's connected with the arrest of Americans in Iran (see also "U.S. assails Iran as 4th dual citizen detained"), although those arrests may have more to do with the capture by American forces of Iranians in Iraq.

I have no way of judging whether these warnings are made because of the confidence of the powers-that-be or because of fear that their power might be slipping away.

In either case, there are political battles underway. Watch for further developments that shed light on how the political system in Iran works.

Talk to foreigners and we will view you as a spy, Iran warns academics

"Iran's powerful intelligence ministry has stepped up its war of nerves with the west by telling the country's academics they will be suspected of spying if they maintain contact with foreign institutions or travel abroad to international conferences...

"'Unfortunately, our lecturers are exposed to intelligence threats,' he said. 'We are worried about many academic conferences which foreigners attend and establish relations [with Iranian academics]. Any foreigner who establishes relations is not trustworthy. Through their approaches, they first establish an academic relationship but this soon changes into an intelligence relationship.

"'Some conversations which take place under the auspices of academic or scientific interviews are pretexts for getting close to the country's scientific figures. Unfortunately some decent individuals fall into the trap of these plots.'...

"Some scholars claim spying allegations are a pretext to purge universities of those deemed too liberal or pro-western. Some say they have been hounded from their posts after their foreign contacts or attendance at international seminars aroused suspicion. Dozens of lecturers have been forced into early retirement as Iran's fundamentalist president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has sought to stamp out the relatively permissive campus atmosphere that flourished under his reformist predecessor, Mohammad Khatami...

"The mood has been captured on campuses by the appearance of slogans such as "the cultural revolution is forthcoming", seen as signalling a return to puritanical values of the 1979 Islamic revolution. It has been accompanied by tales of harassment for such perceived offences as advocating a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or even wearing a tie, seen as a decadent western affectation..."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 11:27 AM