BUZZ
Suit claims law ‘imposes a limitation on the ability to criticize the state of Israel’s actions’
A former University of Arkansas professor terminated from her position after praising Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and calling for Israel’s destruction is now suing in federal court — in part to overturn the state’s antisemitism law.
Prof. Shirin Saeidi also had shared a post in late 2025 calling for a “dagger” to be “thrust […] into the throats of the Zionists,” and allegedly used official university letterhead in support of Hamid Nouri, accused of collaborating in Iranian mass executions, YNet News reports.
Saeidi had been the head of UA’s King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies. Following her dismissal, she demanded a hearing regarding alleged violation of her “academic freedom and free speech rights.”
U.Arkansas System President Jay Silveria ultimately rejected a faculty committee’s recommendation to reinstate Saeidi, citing “concerns over lost funding due to insufficient responses to antisemitism under Title VI.”
Groups such as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, aka FIRE, and the American Association of University Professors opposed Silveria’s decision on free expression grounds.
According to The Intercept, Saeidi’s lawsuit filed on October 6 accuses the “Iranian exile group” Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists of colluding with UA officials to get her fired.
It also seeks to overturn Arkansas’ Act 721 which uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of “antisemitism” and states “each institution of higher education shall incorporate [the definition] into its student and employee codes of conduct.”
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.
“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.”
Act 721’s “carve out for free speech […] is superficial in nature” and “imposes a limitation on the ability to criticize the state of Israel’s actions,” the suit alleges.
It also claims the act “goes beyond curtailing unprotected speech into unconstitutionally restricting a actions as a matter of foreign policy interest.”
For her part, AAIRIA Director Lawdan Bazargan “categorically denies” she conspired with anyone to get Saeidi fired.
“The suggestion that there was some coordinated conspiracy among us is simply false,” Bazargan said. “We publicly raised concerns and asked institutions, elected officials, and journalists to examine them. What they chose to do afterward was entirely their decision.”
MORE: UC Berkeley settles antisemitism lawsuit, but controversy remains
