University of Tehran fires Farzad Kolbali and Sepid Birashk over political views

The University of Tehran ended its work with two of its lecturers, Farzad Kolbali and Sepid (Zahra) Birashk, over their political views and media activities, and banned both from entering the university. The move comes even though Masoud Pezeshkian had promised to return dismissed professors to the universities.

Farzad Kolbali's political sociology course, taught by the adjunct lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Political Science, was cancelled this semester. A media outlet affiliated with the Student Basij, citing posts on a Telegram account attributed to him, accused Kolbali of criticising Ali Khamenei and opposing the Islamic Republic, and the Ministry of Science called his writings "insulting and subversive". The Student Basij of the Faculty of Law also credited its own campaigning for his dismissal. Kolbali was arrested on 7 December 2009, when he was a doctoral student in political sociology.

Sepid Birashk: two classes taught, then banned

Sepid Birashk, a visiting lecturer in the philosophy department of the Faculty of Literature and Humanities, was banned from entering the university on 15 October; she had taught only two sessions. State media used her past work with BBC Persian's "Pargar" programme, the "Shirazeh" podcast and her writings on gender identity as a pretext to attack her, and accused her of not observing the mandatory hijab. The Faculty of Literature claimed it had been unaware of her media record because her name was registered differently in her university file.

Growing pressure on the university

The dismissal of the two lecturers comes just days after the president of the University of Tehran announced the formation of a "hijab working group" for students. In recent weeks, Al-Zahra and Allameh Tabataba'i universities have also banned a number of students from entering and have stepped up the pressure of the compulsory hijab. Since the 2022 uprising and then the January 2026 uprising, summonses, dismissals and disciplinary sentences against critical students and professors have continued without pause.

The University of Tehran threw two lecturers out of the classroom over their views on the Islamic Republic's leader and their work with free Persian-language media.

As of publication of this report, neither of the two lecturers has issued an independent reaction to the decision.