Khamenei condemns teaching of humanities

Khamenei and university staff at eftar dinner

Iran’s Supreme Leader, in a gathering of university deans, professors and scholars, expressed his concerns over the teaching of humanities in Iranian universities and that from the three and a half million nationwide university students, two million were enrolled in this field.

He claimed the teaching of humanities “results in the spread of suspicion in ideological and religious foundation.” He added that the universities did not have that many expert professors in Islamic ideology to teach all those classes.

The teachings of humanities, he declared, were in large part based on materialistic philosophies and lack of faith in Islamic and divine teachings.

Khamenei insisted that students should concentrate more on their faith. Khamenei is a proponent of reviewing university curricula and reconsideration of any section that is influenced by Western theories.

His comments were foreshadowed by the possibly coerced testimony of Saeed Hajjarian, imprisoned reformist ideologue, who recanted all his writings in the mass trial of post-election protesters. Hajjarian claimed the teaching of deviant sciences in university, access to books and various scientific resources and the hiring of foreign-educated professors has caused the spread of worldviews that are not in tune with conditions in Iran.

Hajjarian’s defense also tied vandalism and the destruction of public and private property in the post-election protests with the teaching of humanities.