Iran launches crackdown on leftist intellectuals with arrests, summonses
Iranian security agents detained four and summoned two leftist intellectuals critical of state policies including two economists on Monday, according to local media reports.
Iranian security agents detained four and summoned two leftist intellectuals critical of state policies including two economists on Monday, according to local media reports.
Those targeted include economists Parviz Sadeghat and Mohammad Maljoo, sociologist Mahsa Asadollahnejad, writers and translators Shirin Karimi and Heyman Rahimi, and researcher Rasoul Ghanbari.
Tehran's reformist leaning Shargh daily reported that security forces arrested Sedaghat early on Monday morning after searching his home and seizing books and electronic devices, while fellow economist Maljoo was summoned for questioning.
“We still don’t know why this happened. Up to this moment my father has not contacted us,” Shargh quoted Sedaghat's daughter Mahtab as saying.
Shargh also said that Maljoo had been scheduled to appear before security authorities for questioning. According to his family, after his belongings were confiscated he went to the location specified by the security agencies.
The report added that there is currently no information about Maljoo’s status and the reason for Sedaghat’s arrest remains unclear.
In a July article, Sedaghat had written that despite the ceasefire with Israel, “we continue to live within the same rhetoric, the same confrontational tone.” He warned that Iran’s economy “has been caught in structural blockage” and that without political reform, it is “pushing the country toward systemic collapse.”
In a separate report, Shargh said Mahsa Asadollahnejad, a PhD graduate in political sociology, was detained on Monday morning while at her parents’ home after agents seized her electronic devices.
Her whereabouts remain unknown and she has not yet contacted her family, it added.
Radio Zamaneh reported the arrest of Shirin Karimi, a writer, translator and researcher, after security forces raided her home in the morning searched the premises and confiscated her books and electronic devices before taking her to an undisclosed location.
Her family has received no information about the reason for her detention, according to the reports.
In another report, Shargh said security agents confiscated the electronic devices and books of writer and translator Heyman Rahimi on Monday morning.
Rahimi has been ordered to appear at a designated location on Tuesday for questioning, according to the report. No further details have been released about the reason for the summons.
Activists say Monday’s arrests targeted left-leaning intellectuals.
“The arrests of Parviz Sedaghat, Rasoul Ghanbari, Mahsa Asadollahnejad, Shirin Karimi and Mohammad Maljoo — all prominent leftist figures — show that the government is more concerned about the growing influence of independent leftist movements than about criticism from within the system (reformist or conservative),” Iranian Kurdish activist and journalist Kaveh Ghoreishi said on X.
