Iran’s Islamic Azad University (IAU), which was established by moderate Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, is now in the hands of hard-liners who have decided to lay off pro-reform professors.

After Rafsanjani’s death in January 2017, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei named his conservative foreign policy adviser Ali Akbar Velayati as the head of IAU's board of founders. Velayati then chose Farhad Rahbar — a senior member of conservative Ebrahim Raisi’s campaign in the 2017 presidential elections — as chancellor of the university. Following these appointments, Yaser Hashemi Rafsanjani, the late ayatollah’s youngest son, was dismissed along with a number of other figures within IAU who were seen as loyal to Rafsanjani.

Of note, Islamic Azad University is the biggest university in Iran and has campuses throughout the country. 

After the apparent purge of the administrative apparatus, it seems that pro-reform professors are now being targeted. On Feb. 28, prominent professor Sadegh Zibakalam, who is well-known for his outspoken remarks against hard-liners, told local media that he had been laid off by IAU.