Amid federal crackdown on free speech, Duke professor and Iranian dissident Mohsen Kadivar remains vocal
The Duke Chronicle, Feb. 3, 2026
By Leo Goldberg and Ella Moore
Mohsen Kadivar is no stranger to speaking out about injustice. As a prominent Iranian dissident, he has criticized the repressive Islamic Republic in the face of imprisonment and persecution.
Today, however, Kadivar, a research professor of Islamic studies, is confronted with a new threat as colleges and universities across the U.S. contend with the Trump administration’s threats to freedom of speech.
As U.S. President Donald Trump pledges to cut funding and conduct far-reaching investigations into their practices, universities and their faculty are increasingly self-censoring out of fear of being targeted.
Duke has found itself in the midst of this crackdown. President Vincent Price emphasized the University’s “strategy of silence” in October 2025 in the face of repeated federal scrutiny, an approach that has trickled down to faculty.
But for Kadivar, speaking out, no matter the threat of consequence, has always been an unconditional principle.
The dissident scholar
Recognized in Iran as a leading scholar on Shia theology and jurisprudence, Kadivar became a vocal critic of the Islamic Republic’s narrow religious justification for its autocratic rule. His criticism of Ayatollah Khomeini’s government led to his 18-month imprisonment in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison in northern Tehran in 1999, a decade after the death of Khomeini.
“I showed in my books that [the regime’s] methods are in contradiction with the method of the Prophet Mohammad,” Kadivar said in his interview for a 2011 profile by The Chronicle. “… It’s so bad for them when a person by the religious language criticizes them, because they want to show that all of the opposition are secular … I show that all of these things are wrong.”
Unrelenting and impenitent following his release, Kadivar was eventually condemned to exile from Iran in 2008 by the theocracy for his continued dissent.
He has been at Duke since 2009 and became a research professor in the department of religious studies in 2015. Despite being one of the most prominent intellectual dissidents in Iran, Kadivar was relatively obscure at the University in his earlier days, as The Chronicle’s 2011 profile also pointed out, teaching seminars on Iranian politics and history to small numbers of students. Now, his classes see large enrollment numbers and focus on a wide range of topics like “Science and Religion” and “Philosophy of Religion.”
Even after facing multiple prison sentences, threats from the Iranian government and ultimately exile for his unwavering calls for governmental reform in the country, Kadivar said he has not, and will never be, deterred from his “struggle for justice and freedom.”
Kadivar remains active in his dissent against the Iranian government. With nearly 50,000 combined followers on Twitter and Instagram and tens of thousands more across other platforms, Kadivar regularly communicates his frustration and outrage regarding the regime’s cruelty against citizens, most notably the theocracy’s brutal crackdown on anti-regime protestors in recent weeks.
Carrying a harrowing past of personal consequences for criticizing a government considered far more oppressive than the U.S., Kadivar’s insight proves especially apt in today’s atmosphere of academic self-censorship in higher education.
‘The story has two sides’
Kadivar made no distinction in his disillusionment with the current U.S. and Iranian governments.
“When I was in Iran, many people advised me, ‘Do not talk in this way. They will not tolerate you,’” Kadivar said. “I did not listen. I went to prison. Many people also advise me here: do not talk frankly. Do not criticize the government here, especially in the case of Israel … According to the U.S. Constitution, we have freedom of speech here. It’s very good for testing. I can criticize the Iranian supreme leader the same as Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump. Am I allowed or not?”
Kadivar was adamant in his insistence on scrutinizing injustice committed by all sides equally, not just those we perceive as enemies, a principle he regrettably sees as utterly lacking in today’s world and a sign of failure of international law.
“[The] Islamic Republic of Iran was failed,” Kadivar said. “… But on the other side, liberal democracy in the U.S. and Europe was failed the same. There is no international law, no ethics.”
He cited the unchecked threats from Trump against Canada and the military aggression against Venezuela, both sovereign states.
“I want to say, as [the] Iranian Constitution was violated, the U.S. Constitution was violated too,” Kadivar said. “[Trump] can do anything he wants to do.”
Kadivar urged people to remember that “wrong is wrong,” regardless of what country it takes place in.
Kadivar also examined the current crackdown on protests in Iran through this lens. Toward the end of 2025, protests in Iran erupted in reaction to the sudden collapse of the country’s rial currency and the Islamic Republic’s inability to revive its stagnant economy.
The Iranian government responded with violent force and by shutting off internet access. Thousands of demonstrators have died, according to estimates by a U.S.-based human rights activist agency. Kadivar was decisive in his condemnation of the regime, noting that every citizen in any country has basic right to protest.
But he also lambasted Trump’s actions regarding the protests. “Who encouraged [the protesters] to go to the street? Who said exactly this sentence: ‘The help is on the way?’” Kadivar said in reference to Trump’s statements that the U.S. would intervene militarily on behalf of the protesters if the violence continued. Although he is against U.S. military action in Iran, Trump’s misleading rhetoric, he says, was irresponsible.
“Do you know how many Iranians were killed only because of this sentence?” Kadivar said tearfully. “And we did not help them. Who is responsible? Every day we are saying something new, and we forget what we said yesterday.”
He denounced the current state of the media and his distrust of most outlets from the U.S. and Iran alike due to their inability to accurately frame the whole story without the tacit bias of their country’s perspective on international affairs.
“The story has two sides,” Kadivar said.
‘I belong to humanity’
Kadivar’s candid criticism of the current administration, especially as an immigrant from a country perceived as diametrically opposed to the U.S., rings unique in the current atmosphere of declining free speech on university campuses.
But Kadivar is steadfast in his commitment to voicing dissent against politicians he views as acting against the interests of the people. He writes letters to Congressional representatives, reminding them of their duty to their constituents. He met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during a state visit in New York in September 2025 at the president’s request to openly share his views on the Islamic Republic’s failures of governance, and makes daily posts on social media sharing his reactions and insights on Iranian affairs.
Kadivar said he has doubts about the future, lamenting the continued divisions between religious groups and nations. Yet, he remains firmly committed to his role in working for “justice and freedom” for humanity.
“I’m supporting justice, freedom and peace for the world, for the U.S., for Iran, for Palestine, for everywhere. I’m a global or international citizen. I belong to humanity,” Kadivar said. “I do not want any job for the future. The only thing I want is to have a better, more peaceful world.”