A professor at the University of Arkansas—Shirin Saeidi—was recently stripped of her role as director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies after it came to light that she used the institution’s letterhead to send a support letter to a convicted Iranian war criminal.
Now, that same academic is facing scrutiny from Cambridge University Press, the publisher of her 2022 PhD thesis, Women and The Islamic Republic: How Gendered Citizenship Conditions the Iranian State. The publisher has launched an investigation into allegations that Saeidi fabricated content and incorporated unpermitted material into her dissertation.
The accusations stem from claims made by an Iranian dissident group based in the United States, the Alliance Against the Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA). They allege that Saeidi misappropriated survivor testimony—including that of former political prisoner Maryam Nouri—and claimed to have interviewed ex‑prisoners without permission.
Mrs Nouri, who now lives in Germany, writes in her memoir, In Search of Liberation, that Saeidi used sections of her work without both written and verbal consent. In a recent email to The Post, Nouri expressed her “total shock” at the extent of the alleged fabrication and fraud. She cited her own experience, noting that she was incarcerated in 1985 while pregnant, forced to give birth in prison, and that her husband was repeatedly tortured.
Nouri has also complained publicly to Cambridge University Press about what she calls the “fraudulent use” of her story. The press confirmed that they are “investigating these serious allegations.”
Saeidi has not yet replied to a request for comment from The Post. She maintains that her removal from the administrative post was a violation of her freedom of speech and attributes the action to a “Zionist lobby playbook.”
The dispute has attracted attention from Iranian media outlets affiliated with the Islamic Republic, which falsely reported that Saeidi was dismissed because of her tweets criticizing Israel. In contrast, Saeidi has herself labeled Israel a “terrorist state” and a “genocidal state” on X, and has praised Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a November X post, invoking his protection following the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
The situation underscores a broader controversy surrounding alleged pro‑Iranian stances and the integrity of academic work connected to subjects of political sensitivity.
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