Iran poised to criminalise unapproved academic collaborations
Iran’s parliament has approved a bill that would restrict all forms of academic collaboration with international universities.
The legislation places academics in danger of imprisonment for up to 30 years for contact with foreign higher education institutions. If done without state approval, co-authorship and joint research would also be considered crimes.
Iranian scholars have warned that the law risks damaging scientific cooperation and accelerating the emigration of skilled Iranian people.
This proposed bill is not yet law or in force. It is still under review, and some of its articles have been returned to committee stages because of ambiguities.
According to one Iranian scholar, Negar Partow, a senior fellow at Indiana University Bloomington, one of the most troubling aspects of the bill is that it concentrates decision-making power in the hands of the Ministry of Intelligence and the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“They practically took the Ministry of Education out of the equation and put the power of universities into the hands of the Ministry of Intelligence,” said Partow.
In the draft legislation, the Ministry of Intelligence is fully responsible for approving foreign universities and research institutions for scholarships, contracts and scientific events. Academics who fail to obtain proper approval for academic cooperation would face prosecution.
This would significantly limit the scope of Iranian scholars to attend conferences as well as undertake sabbaticals or visiting fellowships.
The bill also criminalises certain foreign media interviews, which could impact academics seeking to disseminate their research.
“Interviews, expert commentary, or the provision of analysis of foreign media may be regulated or criminalised in specific circumstances. These are all central to research and production and scholarly visibility,” said Partow.
The bill has inched its way through parliament in Iran at the same time as the US cancelled the provision for English language testing there, dealing a double blow to Iranian students.
“Iranian students are somehow sandwiched between the cancellation of general licence for studying in the US and at the same time are subject to most violent and brutal laws in Iran,” said Partow.
“All these students who are now completely devoid of any hope, and they don’t know what to do.”
The bill poses challenges for the global academic community, Partow highlighted, many of whom chose to collaborate with Iranian scholars to boost their visibility.
“We always wanted to collaborate because to raise their profile internationally, we could publish with them from outside. Now all those opportunities are gone.”
Mona Parizadeh, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary in Alberta, argued that the global academic community should continue to spotlight the issue.
“The global higher education community must document cases, embed this issue in academic freedom work, raise it in international forums, and ensure scholarly societies and journals take a clear public stand against such restrictions,” she said.
Parizadeh said that, if enacted, the bill “would isolate Iran from global research, undermine the openness of global science, endanger Iranian scholars through criminal penalties, and expose foreign collaborators to fines and entry bans”.
Alireza Qaiumzadeh, a physics professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, compared Iran’s bill to counter foreign influence with Taiwan’s Anti-Infiltration Act.
“I am hopeful that, given the widespread resistance from both government officials and the academic community within Iran, this will not ultimately come into force. Even if it is approved by parliament, it must still be reviewed and approved by the Guardian Council before it can become law,” he said.
The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran has called on the government to immediately withdraw the draft legislation.
rosalind.skillen@timeshighereducation.com