To the President, Board of Trustees and Leadership of the University of Arkansas:

We, the undersigned, call on the University of Arkansas to immediately investigate and terminate Dr. Shirin Saeidi for serious violations of academic integrity, professional ethics, and the standards expected of faculty at a public American university. 

Dr. Saeidi has:

• Fabricated interviews with former political prisoners in her PhD dissertation and book based on her dissertation research, which was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022.
• Falsified research data and misrepresented human subjects in both her dissertation and book.
• Used University of Arkansas letterhead to intervene to appeal in the appellate case. (2023/Sweden) of Hamid Nouri, a convicted war criminal responsible for the 1988 massacre of Iranian political prisoners.
• Collaborated with and received assistance from entities sanctioned by the United States, including Iran’s Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization.
• Publicly promoted rhetoric that attacks Jewish self-determination, calls for the dismantling of Israel, and echoes antisemitic propaganda used by fundamentalist authoritarian regimes.
• Sought to disparage and intimidate survivors of political imprisonment and families of victims of state violence.
• defends the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, calling its terrorist designation “unlawful,” and framing any criticism of the regime’s armed forces as “cultural suicide,” echoing the exact narratives of the Islamic Republic.

These actions have severely undermined the credibility of the University of Arkansas by violating fundamental academic and ethical norms, including honesty in research, accuracy in scholarship, protection of human subjects, integrity in professional conduct, and respect for survivors of mass atrocities.

Allowing this conduct to go unchallenged harms students, degrades the university’s academic reputation, and signals tolerance for fraud, propaganda, and discrimination.

We therefore urge the University of Arkansas to:

1. Conduct a full and transparent review of Saeidi’s activities, including her work as an activist, her academic scholarship, and her involvement in disseminating propaganda on behalf of the Iranian government.
   
   
2. Retract institutional support and resources from the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies currently directed by Shirin Saeidi
   
   
3. Terminate Dr. Shirin Saeidi for academic misconduct and ethical violations

We call on the University of Arkansas to act immediately to protect its integrity and uphold the values of truth, justice, and ethical scholarship.