一位前伊朗流亡组织与阿肯色州的大学官员和一名州立法员密谋，一场持续不懈且最终成功的运动，试图解雇一位伊朗美国教授，这是根据一份新的诉讼所揭示的。
An Iranian exile group colluded with university officials and a state lawmaker in Arkansas in a relentless, ultimately successful campaign to get an Iranian American professor fired, according to a new lawsuit.
赛依迪（Shirin Saeidi）是阿肯色大学的政治学终身教授，她因在社交媒体上发表批评以色列的言论，于去年十二月被撤销阿肯色大学King Fahd中东研究中心主任职务。这一举动遭到全国性言论自由团体在给大学的信函中予以批评。
Shirin Saeidi, a tenured professor of political science at the University of Arkansas was removed from her post as the director of the school’s King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies in December over social media posts critical of Israel — a move that a national free-speech group criticized in a letter to the university.
尽管有一个全体一致通过的教务委员会建议恢复她的职务，但赛依迪教授在三月份被大学解雇，这一决定在五月份经她上诉后维持原样。
Despite a unanimous vote by a faculty committee recommending her reinstatement, Saeidi was fired from the university in March, a decision that was upheld in May after an appeal by the professor.
解雇发生在“反对伊朗伊斯兰政权的服从者联盟”（Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists）发起的一个为期数月的运动之后。该组织是一群反对伊朗伊斯兰共和国的伊朗美国人。
该组织向大学提交了指控，称赛依迪在代表伊朗政府工作，并指控她在剑桥大学攻读博士期间的论文存在剽窃行为——这些指控均被赛依迪坚决否认。
The firing came after a monthslong campaign by the Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists, an Iranian American group opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The group lobbied the university with accusations that Saeidi was working on behalf of the Iranian government and allegations of plagiarism in her doctoral dissertation at Cambridge University — both of which Saeidi has strenuously denied.
赛依迪告诉《Intercept》记者：“当有人试图拿走你所有的一切，包括你的身份、你的学术成就、你整个成年生命的努力，他们通过将你架构起来并对媒体撒谎来实现这一目标——这确实奏效了。这会让人们怀疑你，而这正是诽谤面临的一个大问题。所以经历这一切令人震惊，但我并不意外。”
“When someone tries to take everything from you, and your identity, your scholarship, your entire labor of your adult life through framing you and lying to the media — it works,” Saeidi told The Intercept. “It makes people doubt you, and this is the big issue with defamation. So it’s been shocking to experience it, but I was not surprised.”
这份包含15项诉求的诉讼旨在推翻赛依迪的解雇决定，并要求赔偿她的工资和损害赔偿金。诉讼还旨在推翻一项法律，即2025年4月由阿肯色州州长萨拉·赫卡比·桑德斯签署的第721号法案，该法案允许州政府切断向任何被认定容许或未能采取行动打击反犹太主义的高等教育机构的财政支持。
The 15-count suit seeks to void Saeidi’s termination and award her back pay and damages. It also aims to overturn Act 721, a law signed in April 2025 by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, which allows the state to cut off public funds to any academic institution found to have allowed or failed to act against antisemitism.
最终，正是这种国家权力机制——加上一位州参议员对大学的施压——似乎推动了塞伊迪的解雇，据她的代理律师之一巴德里亚·姆里扬（Badria Mryyan）称。
Ultimately, it was that mechanism of state authority — combined with pressure on the university from a state senator — that appears to have driven Saeidi’s dismissal, according to Badria Mryyan, one of the attorneys representing her.
“这项法律是一项伪装成平等保护的言论自由限制措施，”姆里扬说。“第721号法案是对言论自由和学术自由的一种威慑，我们清楚地看到大学在面对任何提及第721号法案时，特别是当这些提及来自立法者时，做出了一种真正的恐惧反应。”要将塞伊迪从工作中解雇的动议伴随着更广泛的打击伊朗及伊朗裔美国学者和记者的行动——这种行动多年来伴随着暴力死亡威胁和针对主张与伊朗政府进行外交对话的人们的非常个人的攻击。
“This law is a really good example of a limitation on free speech disguised as equal protection,” Mryyan said. “Act 721 is a deterrent of free speech and a deterrent of academic freedom, and it’s clear to us that the university had a real fear response to any mention of Act 721, but particularly when it was coming from legislators.”The drive to get Saeidi fired from her job came amid a broader push to target Iranian and Iranian American academics and journalists — one that for years has featured violent death threats and highly personal attacks on people arguing for diplomacy with the Iranian government.
然而，随着唐纳德·特朗普总统回归白宫，这些攻击获得了更多的支持，因为它们与该行政府对左翼和亲巴勒斯坦的学者及活动人士的关注不谋而合。
With President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, however, these attacks have gained more purchase as they dovetailed with the administration’s focus on left-wing and pro-Palestine academics and activists.
“这是一起个人在自己的推特页面上表达观点的情况，当对他们是否违反大学规定进行调查时，大学员工说没有，”德州农工大学公共服务与行政管理教授、美国大学教授协会区域代表伦纳德·布赖特（Leonard Bright）说。“但校长却出来推翻了这一决定，这是非常令人不安的，它侵犯了该教职员就公共事务发表个人观点的言论自由。这一反应无疑会让其他教职员在讨论棘手话题时感到害怕。”
“This is a case of a person expressing their viewpoints on their own personal Twitter pages, and when an investigation was conducted to see if they violated university rules, the university employees said no,” said Leonard Bright, a professor of public service and administration at Texas A&M and a regional representative for the American Association of University Professors. “For the university president to come and override that, that’s highly disturbing, and it compromises the faculty member’s freedom to speak her mind about issues of public concern. And that reaction is certainly going to chill other faculty members’ willingness to address difficult topics.”
根据诉讼，针对塞伊迪的运动由罗迪安·巴扎根（Lawdan Bazargan）发起，她在公开提交的文件中被列为AAIRIA的主任。
The campaign against Saeidi was spearheaded by Lawdan Bazargan, who is listed as the AAIRIA’s director in publicly filed documents, according to the lawsuit.
该组织自称为“伊朗前政治犯、被处决政治犯的家属以及致力于正义与 accountability 的人权活动人士”，并对多名伊朗及伊朗裔美国学者和记者发起过类似的攻击活动，指控他们支持伊朗政府。
The organization, which describes itself as a “group of former political prisoners in Iran, families of executed political prisoners, human rights activists who work (seeking) justice and accountability,” has mounted a number of similar campaigns against Iranian and Iranian American academics and journalists who it accuses of supporting the Iranian government.
在接受《The Intercept》采访时，巴扎根纳否认她曾与他人串通解雇塞伊迪。
In a statement to The Intercept, Bazargan rejected the idea that she had conspired with others to secure Saeidi’s termination.
她写道：“我绝对否认诽谤希琳·塞伊迪博士的指控，以及我是否与本杰明·温瑟尔、丹·沙利文参议员或阿肯色大学官员共谋解雇她的任何秘密阴谋或勾结。认为我们之间存在某种协同阴谋的说法纯属虚构。我们只是公开提出关切，并请机构、选举官员和记者予以审查。他们后来的行动完全是他们自己的决定。”
“I categorically deny the allegations that I defamed Dr. Shirin Saeidi or participated in any secret conspiracy or collusion with Benjamin Weinthal, Senator Dan Sullivan, or University of Arkansas officials to have her terminated,” Bazargan wrote. “The suggestion that there was some coordinated conspiracy among us is simply false. We publicly raised concerns and asked institutions, elected officials, and journalists to examine them. What they chose to do afterward was entirely their decision.”
塞伊迪表示，被解雇、被迫辩护面对严重的不当指控，她的生活因此被彻底颠覆。
Fired from her job, forced to defend herself against allegations of serious misconduct, Saeidi said her life has been upended by the campaign against her.
“这不仅对我的职业生涯造成了极大的伤害，更是对我的生活造成了严重的影响，”她说。“我不得不离开阿肯色州，因为我再也不觉得自己安全了。去我孩子学校的人、我在杂货店看见的人、在健身房见到的人，他们都认为我是恐怖分子。”
“This is really damaging to not just my career, but to my life,” she said. “I had to leave Arkansas because I no longer feel safe. People that go to my child’s school, people that I see at the grocery store, people that see me at the gym — they think I’m a terrorist.”
现如今，塞伊迪正以诉讼的形式进行回击。她周一晚上在阿肯色州联邦法院提交了为期 88 页的诉讼状，指控该伊朗裔美国人施压团体、大学官员、共和党州参议员丹·沙利文以及位于耶路撒冷的亲以色列评论人本杰明·温瑟尔共同串通进行诽谤性阴谋，侵犯了她的言论自由，这一阴谋动机是伊斯兰歧视以及打压亲巴勒斯坦言论的企图。
Now, Saeidi is hitting back with the lawsuit. In the 88-page complaint filed Monday evening in federal court in Arkansas, Saeidi and her lawyers accused the Iranian American pressure group, university officials, GOP state Sen. Dan Sullivan, and Jerusalem-based pro-Israel pundit Ben Weinthal of colluding in a defamatory conspiracy against her right to free speech motivated by Islamophobia and a desire to stamp out pro-Palestine speech.
“谢林·萨伊迪博士因其在专业领域的贡献以及积极倡导言论自由，遭到了一场有组织的骚扰行动。这场行动恰恰利用了联邦及州级层面对学术自由日益严重的打压，”代表萨伊迪的律师之一康纳·汤普森说道，“我们希望能为当事人讨回公道，她的生活如今已被彻底毁掉。”阿肯色大学发言人及诉讼中所提及的州参议员丹·沙利文均未对置评请求作出回应。
“Dr. Shirin Saeidi, because of her work in her field and her advocacy and protected speech, was subject to a coordinated harassment campaign that was able to take advantage of a broader attack on academic freedom at the federal and state levels,” said Connor Thompson, one of the attorneys representing Saeidi. “We are hoping to vindicate the rights of our client, who has really had her life ruined.”Neither a spokesperson for the University of Arkansas nor Dan Sullivan, the state senator named in the lawsuit, responded to requests for comment.
2025年3月24日，巴扎尔甘开始针对萨伊迪采取行动，向阿肯色大学校长提交了正式投诉。次日，巴扎尔甘出现在一档以色列新闻节目中，指控萨伊迪及其他美国教授支持伊朗政府。
Bazargan began targeting Saeidi on March 24, 2025, by submitting a formal complaint to the chancellor of the University of Arkansas. The following day, Bazargan appeared on an Israeli news program accusing Saeidi and other professors in the U.S. of supporting the Iranian government.
该组织对萨伊迪的指控最初源于她在瑞典的一场庭审中的证词——该庭审针对一名涉嫌参与1988年大规模处决政治犯的伊朗官员。据萨伊迪称，巴扎尔甘的兄弟便是在那次大屠杀中丧生的。
The group’s accusations against Saeidi initially centered on the professor’s testimony in a Swedish trial against an Iranian official accused of having a hand in the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988. Bazargan’s brother, she said, was killed in the mass execution.
此后数月间，巴扎尔甘给校方官员写了大量信件，其中许多内容被她发布到网上；她在信中指责萨伊迪“公然崇拜伊朗最高领袖”，还“在意识形态上与被联邦政府列为恐怖组织的真主党立场一致”。
In the ensuing months, Bazargan wrote numerous letters to university officials, many of which she posted online, accusing Saeidi of expressing “open admiration for Iran’s Supreme Leader” and being “ideologically aligned with Hezbollah” — a federally designated terror group.
随着时间的推移，巴扎尔甘进一步扩大指控范围，声称萨伊迪在剑桥大学撰写博士论文时存在抄袭及其他学术不端行为；这篇论文后来被整理成书出版，内容涉及伊朗伊斯兰共和国女性的生存状况。
As the months went on, Bazargan widened the scope of her allegations to accuse Saeidi of committing plagiarism and other scholarly sins while working on her doctoral dissertation at Cambridge, work that was later published as a book on the condition of women in the Islamic Republic.
在接受《Intercept》采访时，萨伊迪表示，她最无法接受的就是那些指责她淡化伊朗政府侵犯人权行为、或在研究中存在抄袭及其他学术不端行为的言论。
In an interview with The Intercept, Saeidi said she took particular issue with accusations that she had downplayed human rights violations by the Iranian government or that she had committed plagiarism or other academic misconduct in her research.
“在我的书中，我确实记录了1980年至1988年期间发生的侵犯人权事件，”萨伊迪说道。“我采访了当时身陷牢狱的男女，倾听他们的经历。我绝不否认1980年至1988年间确实发生了人权侵犯行为，也承认许多人因此遭受了不公正的对待。”
“In my book, I actually document the human rights violations of the 1980 to ’88 period,” Saeidi said. “I interview women and men who were in prison at that time, and I listen to their stories. There is absolutely no denial on my part that there were human rights violations that occurred from 1980 to ’88, and that people suffered unjustly because of it.”
在这起诉讼中，萨伊迪指控巴扎尔甘与本·温塔尔勾结。后者是一位亲以色列的评论员，曾为福克斯新闻、《纽约邮报》以及由沙特资助的伊朗国际新闻频道撰稿。萨伊迪在诉状中称，在针对她的打压行动中，“两人商定由巴扎尔甘向大学施压要求展开调查，并公开相关指控。”温塔尔此前曾是《耶路撒冷邮报》的撰稿人，还担任过华盛顿最亲以色列的鹰派智库“民主防御基金会”的研究员；目前他是“中东论坛”的研究员。
该论坛曾发布“应避而远之的教授名单”，还秘密建立数据库记录了数千名美国穆斯林的信息，并曾被指控存在伊斯兰恐惧症倾向。
In the lawsuit, Saeidi accuses Bazargan of working with Ben Weinthal, a pro-Israel pundit who works with Fox News, the New York Post, and the Saudi-funded Iran International news channel. In the campaign against Saeidi, her lawsuit alleges, “the two agreed that he would press the University for an investigation and publish the accusations.”Weinthal was previously a writer for the Jerusalem Post, has been a fellow at one of Washington’s most hawkish pro-Israel think tanks, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and is currently a fellow at the Middle East Forum, a think tank that publishes a list of “Professors to Avoid,” tracked thousands of Muslim Americans in a secret database, and has been accused of Islamophobia.
根据诉讼内容，2025年5月9日，温塔尔直接与巴扎尔甘取得联系，两人“商定由巴扎尔甘向大学施压要求展开调查并公开相关指控”。同一天，温塔尔以福克斯新闻记者的身份向该大学发去询问函，询问有关萨伊迪的指控情况；5月21日，他再次就此事向大学校长及公关部门施压。
According to the lawsuit, Weinthal communicated directly with Bazargan on May 9, 2025, and the two “agreed that he would press the University for an investigation and publish the accusations.”On the same day, he reached out to the university in the form of a Fox News press inquiry about the allegations against Saeidi, pressing the university chancellor and communications office on the matter again on May 21.
直到近七个月后，温塔尔才似乎在媒体上发表有关萨伊迪的文章：12月13日，他与他人合作为《纽约邮报》撰写了一篇报道，讲述萨伊迪被免去中东研究中心主任职务一事。虽然他似乎从未为福克斯新闻撰写过关于萨伊迪的文章，但自去年12月以来，他已为伊朗国际新闻频道和《纽约邮报》撰写或合著了至少五篇关于她的报道。
Weinthal did not appear to publish an article about Saeidi until nearly seven months later, when he co-authored a December 13 story for the New York Post about her removal from her director position at the Middle East studies center. Though he does not appear to have ever published an article about Saeidi for Fox News, he has written or co-authored at least five more articles about her for Iran International and the New York Post since last December.
“我坚持我对赛义迪女士的调查性报道，”温斯塔尔在回应《拦截者》关于诉讼指控的置评请求时表示。
“I stand by my investigative journalism about Ms. Saeidi,” Weinthal said in response to a request for comment from The Intercept about the allegations in the lawsuit.
2025年底，随着巴扎甘及其盟友继续游说大学校官和理事，关注点从指控支持伊朗转向了反犹太主义指控，据称源于赛义迪关于以色列在加沙种族灭绝的社交媒体帖子。
In late 2025, as Bazargan and her allies continued to lobby university officials and trustees, the focus shifted from allegations of support for Iran to accusations of antisemitism, purportedly in social media posts by Saeidi about the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
这一策略经过深思熟虑：今年早些时候，阿肯色州通过了一项针对公立大学涉嫌反犹太主义言论的法律。尽管该校自己的第九条协调员未发现赛义迪有反犹太主义行为的证据，但她认为这是最终导致她厄运的攻击路线。
The tack was well considered: Earlier in the year, Arkansas had passed a law targeting alleged antisemitic speech at public universities. Though the university’s own Title IX coordinator had found no evidence of antisemitism by Saeidi, she thinks this was the line of attack that ultimately doomed her.
根据诉讼，在共和党州参议员沙利文的施压下，大学将赛义迪从中东研究中心主任职位上撤下。并于3月彻底解雇了她，该决定在5月得到维持。
According to the lawsuit, the university removed Saeidi from her position as director of the Middle East studies center under pressure from Sullivan, the Republican state senator, And, in March, the university terminated her entirely, a decision upheld in May.
赛义迪方面表示，她不仅是在为自己而战，也是为所有可能因就争议性问题发声而招致审查的学者而战。
For her part, Saeidi said she is fighting not just for herself, but also for academics everywhere who might also invite scrutiny for speaking out on controversial issues.
“我不认为对我所做的一切能够挽回，”她说，“但我希望这场诉讼的结果能让这种事不再发生在另一位学者身上。”
“I don’t think that what’s been done to me can be undone,” she said, “but it’s my hope that what comes of this lawsuit is that it never happens to another academic.”
巴扎甘方面则没有罢休。在赛义迪被解雇后的几个月里，她推文提及赛义迪数十次，称其为“冒牌女博士”，并重复抄袭和支持伊朗政府的指控。随着事态升温，赛义迪在网上发布了多段视频，其中包含对巴扎甘的恶毒侮辱。
Bazargan, for her part, has not let up. In the months following Saeidi’s termination, she has tweeted about Saeidi dozens of times, calling her “fake doctor lady” and repeating accusations of plagiarism and support for the Iranian government. As things became heated, Saeidi posted a number of videos online containing harsh insults against Bazargan.
根据《拦截者》查阅的一封电子邮件，巴扎甘向FBI举报了赛义迪的网络攻击言论。
Bazargan, according to an email viewed by The intercept, reported Saeidi’s online barbs to the FBI.