As the Women, Life, Freedom protests in Iran sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 continue, the government crackdown intensifies, primarily targeting young female students. Most recently, Iranian and international human rights organizations have documented the widespread poisonings of at least 7,000 schoolchildren, most of whom are young girls between the ages of 12-18. On March 8, 2023, dozens of university students in Tehran and Tabriz coordinated protests condemning these widespread chemical attacks and demanded more information from the Iranian authorities, who thus far have remained reluctant to address or disclose details about the poisonings. The peaceful university protests were met with intimidation and violence by security forces, a tactic that has come to characterize the regime’s repressive attitude towards dissent and free speech, particularly against university students. According to reports from Iran’s Student Union Council, at least 40 students at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences were summoned by university disciplinary committees following the protest’s dispersal, and another 30 students were barred from entering Allameh University’s campus in Tehran. Cases of poisonings, which have been documented since November 2022, have occurred in 290 schools across 28 provinces in Iran and have caused multiple symptoms, including “respiratory distress, numbness in limbs, heart palpitations, headaches, nausea, and vomiting.” Alongside the thousands who have fallen ill, one death of an 11-year-old girl has been reported, while other young girls have been hospitalized to address acute respiratory problems. Government officials were initially dismissive of the poisonings and reluctant to take prompt action. Statements from Iran’s Education Department had even suggested that the poisonings were a form of “mass hysteria” and that the girls who suffered from chemical exposure were merely plagued by “fear and worry.” It was not until March 6, nearly four months after the first poisoning reports, when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the months-long attacks as an “unforgivable crime” and created a task force to investigate the poisonings. While government authorities have arrested at least 100 individuals in connection with the attack, the Interior Ministry has yet to release additional information about their supposed investigations and has gone to great lengths to cover-up reports by detaining individuals who have “spread rumors” about the poisonings. Several students hospitalized from the poisonings have also allegedly been warned to “remain silent” by security forces. To address the disastrous and suspicious government response, 326 Iranian university professors produced a letter condemning the “organized chemical attacks” and warning the regime that “covering up the crime…will be considered as declaring the sovereignty of complicity and alignment with this crime.” The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) released a similar letter stating their fear for the poisonings’ “negative implications on girls’ and women’s education” and demanding an “independent investigation of the poisonings under the guidance of relevant international treaty parties.” Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) joins MESA and other organizations in condemning the widespread poisoning of Iranian school girls carried out by those seeking to repress educational opportunities for women and girls and intimidate those who protest the flagrant injustices perpetrated by the Iranian regime in the wake of the Women, Life, Freedom revolution. ESW remains deeply concerned about the status of academic freedom in Iran, and we continue to support the Iranian protestors, including students, academics, and civilians, who for decades have been living under systematic discrimination, abuse, and oppression by Iran’s Islamic Republic. We call upon all international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of human rights and academic freedom to strongly protest and condemn the inhumane actions of the Iranian government and security forces; to ask for the unconditional release of all banned and arrested student protestors and a halt to all executions; to demand that student protestors who have been banned from their campuses be permitted to reenter; to provide for an independent investigation of the poisoning attacks; and to support the local protests on behalf of Mahsa Amini and the Iranian students, who continue to advocate for justice and freedom. Please send appeals to the following: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei The Office of the Supreme Leader Jomhouri Street Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran Fax: +98 21 644 11 Website: http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/www.Khamenei.ir President Raisi The Office of the President Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran Javad Zarif Minister of Foreign Affairs The Minister’s Office Imam Khomeini Square Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran Fax: +98 21 66743149 Website: http://www.mfa.gov.ir Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jzarif Michelle Bachelet United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland Email: InfoDesk@ohchr.org Sources: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-university-banned-protests-suspected-poisonings/32315597.html https://www.iranintl.com/en/202303134917 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00754-2 https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230315150054782 http://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2023/mar/08/mass-poisoning-schoolgirls-iran

Thursday, March 30, 2023, 12:00PM to 1:30PM (EDT) ONLINE | ZOOM REGISTER HERE We watch with alarm as the Israeli government considers drastic changes, which if enacted, will severely undermine its constitutional democracy. We witness as well, the increasing frustration and anger among Palestinians, with no solution in sight for resolving the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. How can we explain this and what can be done? Please join us online for an important, and much-needed conversation between two world renowned scholars and peace activists, from the region - Israeli philosopher, Avishai Margalit and Palestinian philosopher, Sari Nusseibeh. The conversation will be moderated by Omri Boehm, an Israeli/American philosopher and author of "Haifa Republic: A Democratic Future for Israel". This is a conversation that should not be missed!

In late 2022, China’s citizenry was swept with an overwhelming sense of bitterness and frustration towards their government’s radical Zero-COVID policy, implemented to handle the resurfacing outbreaks of COVID-19 that had occurred since 2020. This widespread discontent escalated to the level of coordinated protests across Chinese cities and university campuses. The so-called white paper protests started in November, primarily in response to the Xi Jinping government’s extreme public health measures, which led to dire consequences on the edge of human rights violations, in the name of combatting the spread of COVID-19. The extreme measurements included, but were not limited to, compulsory mass testing, quarantining, and city-wide lockdowns that “smothered the economy” and produced a trauma that left many, including students, with a sense of “deep personal frustration.” Throughout November and December, students coordinated at least 60 protests, demanding that both the state and university administrators relax their policies and transparently turn over the data they were using to inform their decisions to enforce such extreme measures. The demonstrations also served as an opportunity to voice opposition to the rule of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) illustrated by the many students who held pieces of paper stating “We want human rights” and “Down with the Communist Party!” While the government ultimately lifted the Zero-COVID policy in December, the China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) estimated that at least 100 student protesters were detained or “forcibly disappeared” during the peaceful protests, suppressing free speech. Now, following the cancelation of the policy in December 2022, university students and protestors are returning to campus only to encounter heightened surveillance and censorship, a mark of the government’s unabashed attempts to discourage political dissent and suppress freedoms of speech and information. Many students who were arrested during the protests face an ultimatum: sign promises not to protest and return to campus, or face detention and risk not being able to continue their studies. This is but one form of censorship and surveillance the CCP has used to quell dissenting students across the country. In other instances, previously detained students were allowed back to their university or home under the condition that they remain under “constant supervision,” including periodic chats with police officers. Authorities have also continued to review surveillance footage of the 2022 protests to carry out additional arrests and detentions. ESW remains concerned with the state of academic freedom in China as we continue to witness systematic attempts by the government to infringe upon basic human rights, including freedom of speech and due legal process. The increased surveillance and indiscriminate arrests of Chinese university students is only one of many egregious breaches of rights under the Xi Jinping government, that include the repression and systematic genocide of Uyghurs in so-called education camps and the continued crackdown on scholars and journalists. ESW demands the cessation of these actions and policies and calls for the release of detained student protestors whose peaceful demonstrations were intended to democratize debate and call attention to the regime’s systematic strategies of repression. We call upon all international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of human rights and academic freedom to join ESW in strongly protesting the regime’s violation of human rights and the threats they pose to academic freedom in China. Please send appeals to the following: Xi Jinping President of the People's Republic of China Zhong Naihai Beijing 100032 People's Republic of China Zhou Qiang Chief Justice Supreme People's Court No. 27 Dong Jiao Min Xiang Beijing 100745 People's Republic of China Fax: +86 10 6529 2345 (c/o Ministry of Communication) Website: www.court.gov.cn

As the anti-government protests in Iran chanting “Women, Life, Freedom” have entered their sixth month, the Islamic Republic continues to increase the pressure on any form of dissent and resistance. Iranian media outlets reported that on January 28, 2023, nine professors employed at Tehran Azad University (TAU) were forced out of their positions after publicly criticizing the Islamic Republic in the wake of the Women, Life, Freedom protests. The forced retirement of the professors is only the latest in a series of attempts by the Iranian regime to quell political dissent. A previous article posted by Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) reported on a list of other dismissed or suspended academics, many of whom were targeted in retaliation for not disclosing the identities of student protestors to Iranian authorities. Iranian officials have staunchly refuted the claims that these and other previous academic dismissals were carried out for political reasons. In the instance of the professors expelled from Tehran Azad University, officials claimed their decisions were based on “the pretext of [the professors] reaching the retirement age,” thus driving them into early retirement. These rationales, however, are clearly false. Susan Safaverdi, one of the TAU professors whose employment was terminated, disclosed that she and the eight other academics had been characterized as “anti-establishment” figures. She also reported that the head of the faculty at TAU had reiterated the sentiment that only those who outwardly support the Islamic Republic’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, should be permitted to teach. While Iranian professors expressing concern for the violation of human rights and academic freedom continue to face retaliation, Iranian scientists too remain worried about the potential political pressures exacerbated by the recent appointment of Abdolhossein Khosropanah as the new Secretary of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution. Khosropanah, whose responsibilities include overseeing the development of science, academic life, and culture in Iran, has been described as a “hardline conservative cleric” and is assumed that he will stifle scientific progress. He has also supported the use of the death penalty for protestors imprisoned during demonstrations on behalf of Mahsa Amini. ESW forcefully condemns the continued coordinated punishments of Iranian academics who continue to protest the injustices perpetrated by the Iranian regime in the wake of the Women, Life, Freedom revolution and remains concerned for the status of academic freedom in Iran. We continue to support the Iranian protestors, including students, academics, and civilians, who for decades have been living under systematic discrimination, abuse, and oppression by Iran’s Islamic Republic. We call upon all international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of human rights and academic freedom to strongly protest and condemn the inhumane actions of the Iranian government and security forces; to ask for the unconditional release of all arrested student protestors and a halt to all executions; to demand the reinstatement of all unlawfully dismissed Iranian academics and those who have been forced into early retirement; and to support the local protests on behalf of Mahsa Amini and the Iranian students, who continue to advocate for justice and freedom. Please send appeals to the following: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei The Office of the Supreme Leader Jomhouri Street Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran Fax: +98 21 644 11 Website: http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/www.Khamenei.ir President Raisi The Office of the President Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran Javad Zarif Minister of Foreign Affairs The Minister’s Office Imam Khomeini Square Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran Fax: +98 21 66743149 Website: http://www.mfa.gov.ir Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jzarif Michelle Bachelet United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland Email: InfoDesk@ohchr.org

Hosted on Zoom – Register here for link Tuesdays March 14 – May 16, 2023 1pm-2:30pm Eastern Time Description: This 10-week online seminar will explore the social, political, and cultural contexts that underpin the lives of women in Iran. The co-leaders will examine Iranian women’s lives under sharia law and the ways young women resist religious and ideological cultural politics in Iran in their everyday lives. During the first part of this seminar, the co-leaders will identify and analyze reasons that the Islamic Republic of Iran is experiencing constant street protests, and why women have had no choice but to protest in the streets. It will look at the politics and policies concerning women’s bodies, such as reproductive coercion, child marriage, polygyny, forced pregnancy, and the compulsory wearing of the hijab imposed by the Islamic regime. During the second part of the seminar, the co-leaders will describe the emergence of the main agents of change in society, including women themselves, and explore how Iranian officials are able to sideline their demands. Weekly Readings: Available on the New University in Exile Consortium's website. More Information: Participants who attend at least 8 complete seminar sessions will receive a certificate of satisfactory completion from the Dean of The New School for Social Research. In order to obtain the certificate, participants must register and log in with the same email address each week. Registration will remain open for the duration of the seminar. Registrants will receive a reminder email with the Zoom link each week. The seminar sessions will be recorded and available to registrants on Vimeo the following week.

Professor Ismail Mashal with his cart of free books. Photo credit: BBC Since the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the individual and civic rights gained by women in the past two decades, especially the rights to education and participation in public life, have been under attack by the Taliban. Professor Ismail Mashal, an advocate of women’s rights, has been detained by the Taliban government on February 2nd, 2023. He was violently arrested while distributing free books nearby the Ministry of Education, in the Dehbori area of Kabul. The Taliban have accused Professor Mashal of “provocative actions against the Taliban government” in a social media post. Professor Mashal has long been an advocate of women’s right to education. Professor Mashal tore up his university degrees on live television to protest the ban on women’s education by the Taliban, saying, “If my sister and my mother can’t study, then I do not accept this education.” Until his detainment, he has worked as a lecturer in three universities and ran a private education institution with 450 students, a large portion of which were female. The institution offered girls and young women courses on subjects that are deemed unfit for them to study by the Taliban, including journalism, engineering, economics, and computer science. When the Taliban banned women from education and participation in public life, Mashal shut down his facility, refusing to offer courses to only men. He was giving away free books on his wooden cart, when the Taliban violently attacked and detained him. A sign on his cart said in Dari, “Islam has given women and men equal rights to education.” After his protest on live television, he became the target of death threats, which forced him to stop teaching female students. His family has not heard from him since his arrest and have been denied information on his current condition. Endangered Scholars Worldwide stands with all Afghan students and scholars whose lives, careers, and education have ended since the Taliban’s return to power. ESW stands with all Afghans who are living under the rule of the Taliban, and condemns the persecution of gender, sexual, religious, and ethnic minorities. We join the international community to make every effort to urge the Afghan government honor their obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights treaties, including the release of Professor Ismail Mashal and all other unlawfully imprisoned scholars, students, and advocates of democracy; to ensure free and unhindered humanitarian access to people in need of assistance and protection; and to honor the right to education and free expression.

Photo credit: Vanity Fair As the nationwide debates on the place of politically controversial subjects in public education such as Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Gender and Sexuality Studies escalate, the republican government of Florida has stepped up to restructure state universities in line with its conservative agenda. On February 7, 2023, Florida’s republican governor Ron DeSantis announced plans to defund diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the state, threatening academic freedom and autonomy of higher education. During his public announcement of higher education reform, DeSantis targeted DEI programs as a tool of ideological indoctrination and enemy of higher education. DeSantis put his government’s plan in force by a hostile takeover of the administration of New College of Florida. As a part of his commitment to “eliminate political ideology from public higher education,” DeSantis has appointed six members to the college’s Board of Trustees, who at their first meeting voted to oust Dr. Patricia Okker, professor of American literature and the president of New College since July 2021, and appointed Richard Corcoran, the state’s former commissioner of education, as the new president. DeSantis-led conservative political circles consider universities as domains of indoctrination, which should be freed from so-called radical left-wing orthodoxy. The government's plan was inspired by the model legislation proposed for conservative state lawmakers to bypass or completely end DEI programs at public universities. The model was released by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative American think-tank focused on domestic policy, and offers “a playbook for state legislators to abolish DEI bureaucracies and restore colorblind equality in public universities,” according to Chris Rufo, a fellow at the Institute and one of the six New College Board of Trustees members. The model legislation proposes “to abolish DEI bureaucracies; to end mandatory diversity training; to curtail ‘political coercion’;” and to eliminate identity-based preferences. DEI regulations are considered by conservatives as subsidization of “racialist ideology, bureaucratic capture, and the destruction of their public academies.” DeSantis’s reform plan is expected to raise legal controversy on the federal level concerning academic freedom and equal, democratic participation. As a part of this hostile takeover, on the first day of Black History Month, the College Board released the revised and approved version of an SAT Advanced Placement (AP) course in African American History. The revised version deleted many prominent scholars and philosophers of CRT, including but not limited to Kimberlé Crenshaw (legal scholar), Angela Davis (philosopher and activist), Alice Walker (author of The Color Purple and other novels), and Bell Hooks (philosopher). Moreover, the sections about the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and Black Queer Studies were also taken out. The proposal also introduces a mandatory ‘Western Civilization’ course in all colleges and universities, which is expected to be discussed in March when state lawmakers convene. Endangered Scholars Worldwide condemns DeSantis government’s conservative, anti-democratic, exclusionary agenda for higher education in Florida. We at the ESW join the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) in support of Dr. Okker, the New College community, faculty, and students at higher education institutions that are facing similar challenges and restrictions. ESW is deeply concerned with the long-term implications of this appropriation of public universities as ideological state apparatuses that risk the future of informed debate, critical thinking, and free and democratic production and transmission of scholarly knowledge. The Florida government’s acts set up a precedent for other republican governments who have adapted anti-DIE rhetoric to their campaigns. Academic freedom is a specific form of freedom of speech, which is protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution. We believe this legislation and related institutional changes not only pose a great danger to the future of democratic, equitable, and inclusionary education in the state of Florida, but also it would challenge the constitutionally protected freedom of speech.

On December 26, 2022, Olesya Krivtsova, a 19-year-old student at Northern (Arctic) Federal University, was arrested on terrorist charges for her social media posts that criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Krivtsova remains under house arrest at her mother’s house in Severodvinsk and is banned from accessing the internet or any other forms of communication. This was not Krivtsova’s first encounter with Russian authorities. She had previously been fined 30,000 rubles in May 2022 for distributing and posting anti-war pamphlets in Lenin Square. Her arrest in December, however, came after two of her peers at Northern (Arctic) Federal University reported her to Russian authorities in October by taking screenshots of her anti-war posts on Instagram and the Telegram app, a private messaging app popular in Russia for sharing uncensored content. Three months later, the Russian police barged into her and her husband’s home, forcing them to lie on the ground and threatening them with sledgehammer beatings. Once arrested, the government classified Krivtsova as a terrorist by claiming her social media posts had intent to “discredit the Russian army,” which has been a common indictment against other anti-war dissidents who have expressed their opposition views on social media. She faces up to more than seven years in a penal colony if convicted. Krivtsova’s case is one of many that have become a part of the unrelenting crackdowns on free expression in Russia following the instatement of the war censorship laws early last year. The legislation was implemented to punish the spread of “fake” information about the Russian military and the invasion of Ukraine, which the government continues to describe as a “special military operation”. If convicted, citizens can be sentenced up to 15 years in prison. OVD-Info reports that as of November 2022, the Russian government has detained at least 157 civilians since the beginning of the war for posting anti-war rhetoric on social media, and over 19,000 others have been imprisoned for additional anti-war activities and stances. Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) condemns the arrest and treatment of Olesya Krivtsova and other academics, students, and civilians who have been detained for freely and peacefully expressing opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Russian forces’ multiple crimes against humanity. ESW calls upon all international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of human rights to protest Krivtsova’s arrest and impending sentencing, as well as the use of the her case as an unjust “propaganda piece” that the state media has weaponized to further suppress political dissent. Please send appeals to the following: Anatoly Antonov Embassy of the Russian Federation in the United States 2650 Wisconsin Ave NW Washington, DC 20007 Email: rusembusa@mid.ru Phone: (202) 298-5700 Vasily Nebenzya Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations United Nations 136 East 67th Street New York, NY 10065 Email: mission@russiaun.ru Phone: (212) 861-4900 Michelle Bachelet United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland Email: InfoDesk@ohchr.org

As the Women, Life, Freedom revolution in Iran sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death carries on into 2023, the Iranian regime continues to crackdown on academic freedom by expelling and suspending university professors who had expressed dissent against the government’s abuses of student protestors. According to a report released by the International Community of Iranian Academics (ICOIA), 18 professors have been fired since September 2022, many of whom were targeted in retaliation for not disclosing the identities of student protestors to the authorities. Deutsche Welle reported that one such academic, Farshid Norouzi, a professor of English literature at the University of Mazandaran, was told his contract would not be renewed after he refused to reveal the names of students who had boycotted class during the semester. In another instance, Shamsi Abbasali-Zadeh, an Obstetrics professor at the Medical University of Tabriz, was suspended after a court punished her for attempting to monitor the wellbeing of her students involved in the protests after one of them died during a demonstration. Three additional professors were also arrested and detained for at least a week over the course of the semester, including Fatemeh Mashadi-Abbas, Mohammad Sadigh Amiri, and Behrooz Chamanara. The latter had been kidnapped by security forces after attending a university meeting intended to combat the challenges the campus was facing surrounding the protests. The extent of the expulsions and suspensions is yet to be accurately determined as more professors and students continue to report their stories over social media and expose further government breaches of human rights. Part of the report written by ICOIA was made possible only by information leaked by a hacking group called Black Reward. In addition to academic expulsions, the Iranian regime continues to imprison, kill, torture, and kidnap university students who have coordinated and participated in protests, much of which has been especially targeted towards women and girls. These abuses not only violate international humanitarian law, but have greatly eroded academic freedom and prosperity in Iran. As of January 2023, at least 1000 students have been banned from re-entering universities and more than 700 students have been arrested across 147 universities. ICOIA has also reported that these students have been imprisoned for indeterminate periods of time and have had no access to appropriate medical care, which many need. Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) forcefully condemns the ongoing expulsion and suspension of Iranian academics who have protested the injustices perpetrated by the Iranian regime in the wake of the Women, Life, Freedom revolution. We continue to support the Iranian protestors, including students, academics, and civilians, who for decades have been living under systematic discrimination, abuse, and oppression by Iran’s Islamic Republican regime. We call upon all international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of human rights and academic freedom to strongly protest and condemn the inhumane actions of the Iranian government and security forces; to ask for the unconditional release of all arrested student protestors’ immediate and to demand a halt to all executions; to demand the reinstatement of all unlawfully dismissed Iranian academics; and to support the local protests on behalf of Mahsa Amini and the Iranian students, who continue to advocate for justice and freedom. Please send appeals to the following: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei The Office of the Supreme Leader Jomhouri Street Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran Fax: +98 21 644 11 Website: http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/www.Khamenei.ir President Raisi The Office of the President Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran Javad Zarif Minister of Foreign Affairs The Minister’s Office Imam Khomeini Square Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran Fax: +98 21 66743149 Website: http://www.mfa.gov.ir Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jzarif Michelle Bachelet United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland Email: InfoDesk@ohchr.org

As Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches the 1-year mark, Volodymyr Vorovka, a professor of marine biology at Melitopol Pedagogical University in Ukraine, was kidnapped from his home by Russian authorities in the early morning of December 13, 2022. Melitopol, a city in Zaporizhzhia Oblast of Ukraine’s southeastern region, has been occupied by Russian forces since March 2022 and has since remained a highly militarized site. Vorovka is one of over 700 Melitopol residents who have been abducted since the war began, according to Mayor Ivan Fedorov, who himself was abducted and tortured by Russian occupiers last year. A report by Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group stated that witnesses saw men in military gear “burst” into Vorovka’s home around 5:30 am before emerging with Vorovka and forcing him into one of the vehicles. Vorovka’s relatives have not heard from him since his abduction. Russian military authorities have given up no information as to his whereabouts. The abductions, threats, and attacks perpetrated by Russian military forces on academics in Melitopol and elsewhere across the country reiterate the motive of the Russian army to suppress and annihilate critical thinking and freedom of speech to break down Ukrainian resistance. Universities and other education facilities are at the center of this mission. Since the Russian invasion last year, 93 missile, drone, and artillery attacks have been launched against Ukrainian universities, and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian academics and students have been displaced from their homes and universities. Civilians, too, face atrocious attacks on their livelihoods. Ukrainian residents of Melitopol have reported that since November 2022, Russian soldiers have begun taking over schools and positioning artillery weapons in and around the city to retain control. Mayor Fedorov told The New York Times that the coordinated efforts have been an attempt to close all access, both in and out, to the city, with Ukrainian war prisoners forced to dig trenches around the borders of the district. Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) condemns the kidnapping and assaults of Professor Volodymyr Vorovka and other academics, students, and civilians by Russian soldiers, which constitute crimes against humanity, a violation of Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. ESW calls upon all international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of human rights and the Ukrainian people to also protest these war crimes which continue to characterize the injustice of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Please send appeals to the following: Anatoly Antonov Embassy of the Russian Federation in the United States 2650 Wisconsin Ave NW Washington, DC 20007 Email: rusembusa@mid.ru Phone: (202) 298-5700 Vasily Nebenzya Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations United Nations 136 East 67th Street New York, NY 10065 Email: mission@russiaun.ru Phone: (212) 861-4900 Michelle Bachelet United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland Email: InfoDesk@ohchr.org

Hamline University || Photo credit: NYT At the end of the Fall 2022 academic term, Hamline University, a liberal arts college in Minnesota, fired an adjunct professor of art history, Erika López Prater, for showing an image of the prophet Muhammad in a global art history class. As a result, the university administration immediately ended Dr. Prater’s employment as an adjunct faculty member, setting off national controversy surrounding academic freedom, as well as precarity of academic labor and diversity and inclusion in academia. In compliance with the college’s Civility Code, Prater issued a syllabus warning and shared recurrent reminders that the class would contain images of holy figures, including the prophet Muhammad and the Buddha. She also informed students that those images are optional and they can reach out with any concerns about the course material and ask for alternative accommodations; however, none did, according to a New York Times report. Dr. Prater also repeated her warnings in class that an image of Muhammad would be displayed in a few minutes and anyone who might be offended are free to leave the classroom. Despite the peaceful conduct of the class without any student concern raised, a senior student, who is also the head of the school’s Muslim students association, later complained to administrators. The complaint was supported by the Muslim students who were not enrolled or present in the class. Following the controversial incident, Fayneese Miller, the president of Hamline University, sent an apology letter to the student body last month, stating: “It is not our intent to place blame; rather, it is our intent to note that in the classroom incident—where an image forbidden for Muslims to look upon was projected on a screen and left for many minutes—respect for the observant Muslim students in that classroom should have superseded academic freedom.” Miller’s letter exacerbated the controversy by counterposing academic freedom with institutional diversity and inclusion. The image that led to Dr. Prater’s dismissal is one of the earliest Islamic illustrated histories of the world, A Compendium of Chronicles. According to the statement of Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a nonprofit organization to promote and strengthen American pluralism by improving policies that impact American Muslims, the image was not Islamophobic. The painting was commissioned by a Muslim patron to honor the Prophet by depicting the first Quranic revelation from the angel Gabriel. MPAC’s statement emphasized that the Islamic culture is not monolithic and internally diverse, and “the professor should be thanked for her role in educating students, Muslim and non-Muslim alike,” on this internal diversity and pluralism of the Islamic tradition in a critically empathetic manner. As the MESA letter also highlighted in reference to prominent scholars of Islamic art and history, “the presumption that depicting the Prophet has always been prohibited in Islam is historically inaccurate and erases the diversity of Islamic practice, which has in many times and places included the commissioning and viewing of figurative depictions of Muhammad as a form of veneration.” In times of rampant racism, xenophobia, and discrimination, targeting an art professor for showing a centuries old piece of Islamic art in the name of Islamophobia waters down the term and obstructs the recognition of actual acts of bigotry, discrimination, and hate speech. Endangered Scholars Worldwide deeply condemns the decision of Hamline University that compromises academic freedom and freedom of speech. Prater’s case demonstrates both the obstructions of academic freedom and the precarity of academic labor. Hamline University, like all other higher education institutions, has an obligation to uphold and protect academic freedom both for their students and faculty, with an objective and fair approach to the concerns and sensitivities of all parties. We endorse MPAC and MESA initiatives in support of Dr. Prater’s reinstatement, demanding a fair and full investigation of the incident, taking into account the expertise of the scholars of Islamic art and history, which would help reaffirm the university’s commitment to the values listed in its Civility Code, and foster a better understanding of the diversity of Islam, including various ways of artistic expression, through which Muslims engage with their faith.

Lin Htet Naing, a Burmese student activist, was imprisoned for the fourth time by Myanmar government forces in June 2022 after the regime accused him of incitement to mutiny. According to Human Rights Watch, Naing’s arraignment under Article 505(A) has been frequently instrumentalized by the regime as part of its post-coup code revisions that have increased the repression of free speech, assembly, and expression, particularly among students and activists. Naing is currently incarcerated in Insein Prison in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest detention center notorious for detaining political prisoners. Naing has long been the target of the Burmese regime and has spent his adult life in and out of prison. He remains detained along with 13,000 other Burmese citizens who have been unjustly arrested by the junta following the coup in 2021. Naing was first imprisoned for taking part in the Saffron Revolution, alongside his spouse, Phyoe Phyoe Aung, in 2008. He was re-imprisoned again in 2015 and 2020, both imprisonments were previously reported by Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW). His spouse, according to BBC, has “been on the run” since taking part in coup protests last year. Naing’s mother was tragically killed in a blast at Insein Prison, alongside seven others, during a visit to see her son in October 2022. Such incidents are unfortunately common in Myanmar; bombings are reported nearly every day as anti-government guerilla groups attempt to target members of the regime, and members of the junta have also been accused of provoking shootings and blasts to “discredit the resistance movement,” according to AP. Naing’s appeal to attend his mother’s funeral was denied. Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) condemns the junta’s treatment and continual imprisonment of Lin Htet Naing and all those who exercise their right to speech, assembly, and protest to struggle for freedom and democracy in Myanmar. We also endorse the UN High Commissioner's actions in investigating the closed-door trials that stand to conceal unjust decision-making resulting in violations of Burmese civilians’ rights to a fair trial and peaceful protest. ESW calls upon all international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of human rights to strongly protest and condemn Naing’s and all political prisoners’ imprisonment; to ask for their immediate and unconditional release upon appeal; and to stand in solidarity with the Burmese people, who continue to oppose the military regime that illegitimately interrupted democratic politics in the country. Please send appeals to the following: Ambassador Aung Lynn Embassy of Myanmar (Burma) 2300 S Street, NW, Washington DC 20008, USA mewdcusa@gmail.com, mewdcusa@yahoo.com (202) 332-3344, (202) 332-4350, (202) 332-4352 Kyaw Moe Tun Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar to the United Nations 10 E 77th St, New York, NY 10075, USA myanmarmission@verizon.net (212) 744-1271