Harvard and Iran

A group of Harvard administrators and faculty members flew to Iran last week to talk to members of the Iranian Ministry of Science and Higher Education about setting up a research-oriented university in Iran. They are going at Harvard's expense, but the trip is more than just an act of charity. The University is apparently looking for some kind of money or endowment from Iran in return for its expert's advice.

That kind of cooperative relationship wouldn't be bad if it weren't for the nature of Iran's government and educational system. Iran's Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, came to power in 1953 in the wake of a CIA-sponsored coup: the American government ousted Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh because of his reforms in tax distribution, nationalization of the oil industry, and friendly stance toward the Soviet Union. The CIA installed the Shah as head of state because he was a staunch supporter of the American government.

Since he came to power, the Shah has run his nation as a virtual police state. Iran's 70,000-member secret police force keeps tight control on political action and even thoughts; its web is wide enough to include at least one agent in every university classroom.

Iran's universities, in fact, seem to operate on just the kind of system Harvard professors like to condemn in theory. They are under the tight control of the dictatorship; dissident professors are fired and sometimes tortured until they renounce their political views. Students are forced to study what the Shah considers his great achievements as a ruler, and their protests usually result in arrests or injuries.

The same week the Harvard delegation flew to Iran professors at a Faculty meeting here were making impassioned speeches about how Harvard should be free of government intervention and control--a line of reasoning that people at Harvard repeat over and over. It is especially hypocritical for a university that prides itself on its commitment to the independence of educational institutions to help set up an institution with no such freedom. Harvard should have nothing to do with the Shah's new university.