Mohammad-Bagher Mohammadsadeghi-Azad was dismissed from his position as president of Shahid Madani University of Azerbaijan before the official end of his term. A faculty member of the School of Engineering, he had no notable administrative background and was appointed as acting president solely due to his role in the Professors’ Basij Organization during the protests of November 2022, coinciding with the emergence of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement. His appointment was later formalized.
According to a tweet by Ali Shamsipour, the then-spokesperson for the Ministry of Science, the purpose of this appointment was to “firmly confront lawbreakers”—a phrase that, in practice, translated into systematic repression of student activists.
At the beginning of his tenure, Mohammadsadeghi-Azad suspended over 20 students without legal justification or formal disciplinary rulings, turning the campus into a heavily securitized space. He also barred certain students from entering the university grounds, paving the way for their arrests at the university’s main gate.
In December 2022, he ordered the closure of the “Mizban” restaurant and the science faculty buffet under the pretext of gender segregation. Despite student council elections being held, the resulting body was suspended because its elected members were not aligned with his preferences.
In winter 2022 and spring 2023, repression escalated with the opening of disciplinary cases against more than 100 students. These cases resulted in suspensions, bans from education, and the dissolution of several academic associations, all signed and approved by him.
In fall 2023, in cooperation with extrajudicial and security forces, several students were violently arrested on campus. Some were forced to withdraw from university, take mandatory leaves of absence, or, in some cases, were expelled. In violation of official regulations, a university security staff member was appointed as secretary of the disciplinary committee—a role that should have been assigned to a faculty member.
In winter 2023 and throughout spring and fall 2024, the summoning, threatening, and pressuring of students intensified under pretexts such as dress code violations or online activity. Campus transportation became gender-segregated, and threatening phone calls from the university’s security office and student affairs department became routine. Simultaneously, a climate of fear and censorship prevented any reporting of these incidents in the media.
In most disciplinary cases, students were charged with “violating student decorum”—a vague accusation often lacking any legal or factual basis. Despite this tightly controlled environment, the student council was re-established in fall 2024 after nearly four years.
Ongoing security threats and frequent phone summonses became part of daily life at the university, severely impacting students’ mental well-being. Alongside these repressive measures, issues such as lack of financial transparency, dire student welfare conditions, housing problems, and destruction of parts of the university’s green spaces were sidelined and neglected under the security-dominated administration.
Finally, in July 2025, with a year and a half remaining in his term, Mohammad-Bagher Mohammadsadeghi-Azad was removed from office by the then Minister of Science. During his 2.5 years in the “Glass Building” of Shahid Madani University of Azerbaijan, student activists endured one of the darkest and most repressive periods in the university’s history.
He was dismissed with a record so indefensible that even higher-ranking officials could no longer support it. Nevertheless, his name will remain etched in the history of Iranian universities as one of its most repressive figures.
