Iran: Free Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal!
Posted February 11, 2020
Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal are researchers at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) who have been wrongfully detained in Iran since June 2019.
On February 11, 2020, Scholars at Risk joins 18 academic associations and human rights groups in calling for the immediate release of Dr. Adelkhah and Dr. Marchal and to protect the right to academic freedom in Iran and beyond.
Freedom for Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal, academic prisoners in Iran
Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal, two researchers affiliated to the Centre for International Studies (CERI) in Paris, have been in an Iranian prison since June 5, 2019. Alongside fifteen other foreign academics, they have been accused of political crimes: undermining national security, propaganda against the regime and spying.
Iran’s justice system has itself acknowledged the arbitrary nature of the allegations. In December a court ordered their conditional release and in January espionage charges against Fariba Adelkhah were dropped. Yet it is not justice, but Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who determine their fate and harsh conditions of detention.
On 24 December Fariba Adelkhah began a hunger strike. With Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian-British academic incarcerated since 2018, she refused food in defense of legal rights and academic freedom throughout the Middle East. Their pleas have successfully highlighted the plight of all academic prisoners. After six weeks of starvation, Fariba Adelkhah’s health is now in a critical condition.
Despite international publicity and outcry, the academics face acute danger. Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal may soon be brought before Tehran’s Revolutionary Tribunal. There are strong reasons to believe that this trial will not be impartial.
The ‘shadow power’ of the Revolutionary Guards ultimately rests,
constitutionally, on the Supreme Guide of the Revolution. This is why we formally address him, on this Tuesday 11th of February, the day commemorating the 1979 revolution, to ask him to save the Islamic Republic from the shame of injustice by ordering the Revolutionary Guards to free Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal and all others unjustly detained.
From the depths of Evin prison, Fariba Adelkhah poignantly has called upon us to “save researchers, in order to save research and preserve our history”. This appeal concerns not only the Islamic Republic and the whole Middle East, but academics throughout the world. For there will be no free and fair society without academic freedom.
Signatories:
Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship, Lebanon
Association Française de Science Politique, France
Swiss Political Science Association, Switzerland
Centre d’Étude des Crises et des Conflits Internationaux, Belgium
Centre d’Études et de Recherche Internationales, Canada
Centre de Recherche sur l’Action Politique de l’Université de Lausanne, Switzerland
Centre de Recherche et d’Étude sur les Sociétés Contemporaines (CRESC), Morocco
German Political Science Association, Germany
European Consortium for Political Research
Forum Tunisien pour les Droits Économiques et Sociaux, Tunisia
Freedom Now, Morocco
Groupe Jeunes Chercheurs en Sciences Sociales, Morocco
Middle East Studies Association of North America
Pan African Anthropology Association
Réseau Européen d’Analyse des Sociétés Politiques
Scholars at Risk
Swiss Society for African Studies, Switzerland
South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal
Universitaires pour la paix/Academics for Peace, Turkey
This issue was also supported by:
Association des Chercheur.e.s de Politique Africaine
Association Française d’Ethnologie et d’Anthropologie
African Studies Association
Cedej Khartoum (Centre for social, legal and economic studies and documentation in Sudan)
Centre de recherches internationales/Centre for International Studies
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Center for Socio-Political Data, Sciences Po
Centre Français de Recherche en Sciences Sociales
Committee of Concerned Scientists
Conférence des Présidents d’Université
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
Endangered Scholars Worldwide
European Association of Social Anthropology
Fondation de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme
Fonds d’Analyse des Sociétés Politiques
The Graduate Institute Geneva
Groupement d’Intérêt Scientifique Études Africaines en France
Institut des Hautes Études sur la Justice
Institut des Mondes Africains
Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales
International Sociological Association
Les Afriques dans le Monde
Revue Internationale de Politique de Développement/International Development Policy
Sciences Po, Paris
Società Italiana di Filosofia Politica
Società Italiana di Scienza Politica
Université de Lausanne
Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne
Université de Strasbourg
Université Paris Nanterre
Non-academic organisations supporting:
Association Tunisienne de Défense des Libertés, Tunisia
Association Tunisienne des Femmes Démocrates, Tunisia
Beity, Tunisia
Centre des Défenseurs des Droits de l’Homme, Libya
Comité Pour le Respect des Libertés et Droits de l’Homme en Tunisie
Ligue Tunisienne des Droits de l’Homme, Tunisia
Parti Radical Italien
Syndicat National des Journalistes Tunisiens
Vigilance Pour la Démocratie et l’État Civique, Tunisia