[lbo-talk] academic boycott of Iran

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 5/21/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> [Yoshie, better work on Noam - evidently he hasn't gotten the memo yet.]
>
> Washington Post - May 20, 2007
>
> Academics May Boycott Iran Over Scholar's Detainment
> By Robin Wright
> Washington Post Staff Writer
>
> Momentum is building behind an academic boycott of Iran to pressure
> the government to free imprisoned American scholar Haleh Esfandiari,
> who was jailed in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison on May 8 after more
> than four months under house arrest.
>
> The Middle East Studies Association of North America, which has 2,700
> members worldwide, has written to Iranian President Mahmoud
> Ahmadinejad warning that the detention of scholars has triggered
> "grave concern" and that Esfandiari's imprisonment has sent a
> "chilling message to scholars throughout the world." Esfandiari is
> director of Middle East programs at the Smithsonian's Woodrow Wilson
> International Center for Scholars.
>
> "Harassment and detention of scholars is always cause for grave
> concern, but in this case it should be noted that the scholar in
> question is widely respected both for her knowledge and ability to
> provide clear and dispassionate analysis," the letter added. It also
> charged that Iran's action against the 67-year-old grandmother, who
> was visiting Iran to help her ailing mother, 93, violates the
> republic's constitution because she has been denied legal counsel.
>
> MIT professor Noam Chomsky also issued a statement yesterday calling
> Esfandiari's detention "deplorable" and warned that the action by
> Iran's intelligence ministry was "a gift" to American policymakers
> trying to organize support for military action against Iran. "Now is
> a time for diplomacy, negotiations, and relaxation of tensions, in
> accordance with the will of the overwhelming majority of Americans
> and Iranians, as recent polls reveal," Chomsky said. "The intolerable
> treatment of this highly respected scholar and human rights activist
> severely undermines the efforts of those who are seeking peace,
> justice and freedom in the region and the world."
>
> In his popular blog, University of Michigan Middle East expert Juan
> Cole said that he canceled plans to attend a conference this summer
> in Iran because of Tehran's imprisonment of Esfandiari and called on
> other academics to do the same. "Everyone should be outraged about
> this story. Her arrest should be an issue for everyone who believes
> in human rights, in academic freedom, and in women's rights," he
> wrote. Cole also suggested that academics and others protest in front
> of Iranian diplomatic missions.

Aside from Juan Cole, though, is "the momentum for an academic
boycott" of Iran really building, as the Washington Post claims?  The
Middle East Studies Association doesn't call for one, and I very much
doubt that Noam Chomsky would join one if it did, given his position
on the boycott of Israel.

Indeed, if cases like this are to be grounds for academic boycotts,
Middle East studies scholars can never visit any country in the Middle
East, and it would have to boycott the USA itself.  The MESA itself
keeps a long list of "Committee on Academic Freedom Letters," and in
the year 2007 alone it has already been sent letters of protest to
Egypt (regarding "severe restrictions on student expression, including
disciplinary hearings and suspensions, on several Egyptian university
campuses"), Saudi Arabia ("arbitrary restrictions that the government,
including the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Higher
Education, has placed on a number of Saudi academics," including
"preventing professors from teaching and meeting with students,
banning publication and distribution of their work, denying them
access to Saudi and regional media, and prohibiting them from
traveling abroad for professional purposes"), De Paul University
(regarding Norman G. Finkelstein),  Harker School (in San Jose,
regarding abrupt cancellation of lecture by Joel Beinin), Turkey
(regarding "the detention and deportation from Turkey of Finnish
independent scholar and freelance journalist Dr. Kristiina Koivunen";
"the expulsion of Prof. Dr. Atilla Yayla from his faculty position at
Gazi University"; "the criminal investigation of Dr. Taner Akçam, a
visiting professor of History at the University of Minnesota, for
stating that the 1915-1917 deportations and massacres of Armenians
constituted a genocide"; ), Iran (regarding "the recent expulsion of
Mr. Matin Meshkin from Tehran's Amir Kabir University of Technology"),
and Dubai (regarding "the October arrest and questioning of an
American scholar, Assistant Professor Syed Ali, and his subsequent
expulsion from Dubai").  But you read nothing of the sort in the
Washington Post or any of the US media.
-- 
Yoshie