The road to justice is usually a very long one. Accountability for gross violations of human rights, such as crimes against humanity, can elude victims or family members, sometimes for a lifetime. This podcast is the first of several planned podcasts that will discuss how former Iranian regime officials have been offered lucrative posts at several American universities. In this episode, Jason talks with Ms. Lawdan Bazargan, whose brother was unlawfully imprisoned, tortured, and assassinated by the Iranian regime in 1988 during was has come to be called the 1988 Massacres.
An American and California resident, Lawdan explains how she and her family have sought to hold Iranian regime officials to account in Europe, and more recently, right here in the United States. So when she learned a former Iranian regime official was offered a job at Oberlin College in Ohio, Lawdan and other families whose loved ones had been killed in 1988 sprung into action. Lawdan explains that Americans should work for an education system "free of bigots, murderers, and people accused of crimes against humanity." "Professor Mohammad Jafar Mahallati has no place in our higher education system," Lawdan said, and she hopes Oberlin college will reassess their decision to offer him a job.
Professor Mahallati is a Professor of Religion at the Department of Religion, Nancy Schrom Dye Chair in the Middle East and North African Studies of Oberlin College. In an Open Letter To Amnesty International on Oberlin College’s Appointment of Mahallati families urged Amnesty and other NGOs to "hold Mahallati accountable for his grave misdeeds on behalf of the Iranian regime. Anything less shows an inexplicable indifference to the mass murders and lies detailed in Amnesty’s report" that included Mahallati for his role in covering up the 1988 Massacres while he served at the United Nations.
Further Reading
Oberlin College: Take action against Professor Mahallati, Jewish News Syndicate, (June 15, 2021).
After [Jerusalem] 'Post' article, college reviews antisemitism of ex-Iran envoy prof, The Jerusalem Post (May 6, 2021).
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Former Iran Officials Teaching in American Universities, Oberlin College