We, the undersigned, invite our linguistic colleagues, as well as other scholars, academics and peace advocates across the continents, to join us in condemning the re-imposition of paralyzing sanctions on Iran by the Trump Administration.

As academics we deplore the collapse of collaboration with Iranian universities and colleagues, the hardship placed on Iranian students enrolled in graduate programs in the US, the inability to travel to the US because of visa restrictions, and the suspension of research projects involving travel to Iran. Cultural and scientific collaborations have always been the vital first connections leading towards normalized political relations and peace.  But our appeal here reaches beyond the cultural and scientific arena and is on behalf of the nearly 80 million ordinary citizens of Iran. 

The Iranian people have endured decades of economic warfare waged by the US and its allies. Since the revolution of 1979 in Iran and the end of a mutually beneficial relationship between the US and Iran’s autocratic leader, the Shah, the US has imposed numerous sanctions on Iran under various guises. These sanctions reached their zenith of harshness in 2012, which saw the Iranian economy stagger under recession and inflation and the Iranian people suffer in numerous ways. Yet, despite all hardship, the people endured, and the Iranian economy did not collapse.

Hope for a better future finally emerged in 2015 with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated by the Obama Administration between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany), which offered economic relief and a path forward toward peaceful resolution of outstanding disputes. But now, despite Iran’s continuing, good-faith adherence to the terms of the JCPOA, the current US Administration has decided to unilaterally repudiate the agreement and restore all the draconian sanctions, including secondary sanctions.  This move has already affected the Iranian economy and the lives of millions of Iranians.  Iran’s oil revenue has dropped precipitously, the rate of GDP growth has fallen and is projected to fall further, unemployment has risen, the currency market has been thrown into a tailspin, the banking system faces difficulty dealing with foreign banks, the rate of inflation has increased drastically, many foreign manufactures have left Iran out of fear of US retribution, no new airplanes, not even parts for the old planes, can be delivered to Iran, there is a shortage of crucial medicine needed for patients, particularly those suffering from cancer, and there is fear and anxiety among the populace about how difficult life can become as the US tries, once again, to punish Iran and its civilian population through economic warfare.

The new round of sanctions will once again harm the lives of millions of innocent Iranians. It is in the name of Iran’s civil society that we condemn the unilateral and immoral policy of the Trump Administration toward Iran and urgently request that the sanctions be lifted immediately.

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Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus MIT; Laureate Professor of Linguistics, University of Arizona and Agnese Nelms Haury Chair of Environment and Social Justice, University of Arizona

Mohammad Amouzadeh, Professor of Linguistics, University of Isfahan, Iran

Jila Ghomeshi, Professor of Linguistics, University of Manitoba, Canada

Arsalan Golfam, Professor of Linguistics, Tarbiat Modares University, Iran

Farideh Haghbin, Professor of Linguistics, Alzahra University, Iran

Simin Karimi, Professor and Former Chair of Linguistics, University of Arizona

Yadgar Karimi, Professor of English and Linguistics, University of Kurdistan, Iran

Gh. Karimi-Doostan, Professor of Linguistics, University of Tehran

Richard Larson, Professor and Former Chair of Linguistics, Stony Brook University

Ritva Laury, Professor Emerita of Linguistics, CSU Fresno; Professor Emerita of Finnish, University of Helsinki, Finland

Saffar Moqadam, Professor of Applied Linguistics, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Iran

Mahinnaz Mirdehghan, Professor of Linguistics, Shahid Beheshti University, Iran

Mandana Noorbakhsh, Professor of Linguistics, Alzahra University, Iran

Fariba Qatreh, Professor of Linguistics, Alzahra University, Iran

Reza M. Sahraei, Professor of Linguistics, University of Allame Tabatabai, Iran

Bakhtiar Sajadi, Professor of English and Linguistics, University of Kurdistan, Iran

Vida Samiian, Professor of Linguistics and Dean Emerita, California State University, Fresno; Co-coordinator, California Scholars for Academic Freedom

Farhad Sasani, Professor of Linguistics, Alzahra University, Iran

Shahla Sharifi, Professor of Linguistics, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran

Bahman Zandi, Professor of Linguistics, Payam Noor University, Iran

Rabab Abdulhadi, Director and Senior Scholar, Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies, San Francisco State University

Robert Brenner, Professor Emeritus of History and Director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History, University of California, Los Angeles

Richard Eaton, Professor of History, University of Arizona

Hilal Elver, Research Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara; United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food

Richard Falk, Albert G. Milibank Professor Emeritus of International Law, Princeton University; Visiting Distinguished Professor of Global and International Studies, UC Santa Barbara

Sasan Fayazmanesh, Professor Emeritus of Economics, California State University, Fresno

Manzar Foroohar, Professor Emerita of History, California Polytechnique University, San Luis Obispo

Nancy Gallagher, Professor Emerita, University of California, Santa Barbara

David Gibbs, Professor of History, University of Arizona

Sang Hea Kil, Associate Professor of Justice Studies, San Jose State University

Suad Joseph, Distinguished Research Professor, University of California, Davis

David Palumbo-Liu, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor of Comparative Literature and, by courtesy, of English, Stanford University;

Shahla Razavi, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Mt. San Jacinto College

Lisa Rofel, Emeritus Research Professor of Anthropology & Co-Director, Center for Emerging Worlds, University of California, Santa Cruz; Co-coordinator, California Scholars for Academic Freedom

David Lloyd, Distinguished Professor and Chair of English Department, University of California, Riverside

Afshin Matin-Asgari, Professor of History, California State University, Los Angeles

Joe Parks, Professor of Education, California State University, Fresno

Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi, Professor of History, California State University, Fullerton

Maryam Hastings Shayegan, Professor of Mathematics, Fordham University

Leyli Shayegan, Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University

SUZI Weissman, Department of Politics, Saint Mary’s College, Moraga, CA