On behalf of the Bard College community, on the eve of Thanksgiving, a national holiday that marks our collective and shared sense of gratitude, I want to express solidarity with the students and scholars of Iran who are in desperate and dangerous circumstances.

Zhina Mahsa Amini, whose death ignited the current protests, had just been admitted to university and reportedly aspired to become a lawyer. Many of those now protesting in Iran are female university and secondary school students. University and high school campuses have become sites of violence as the regime cracks down on all dissent. It is difficult to know details of current circumstances, since government censors have shut down internet access across the country, but there have been reports of hundreds of people, including dozens of schoolchildren, killed, with many more detained and charged. We grieve these untimely deaths and unjust detentions.

For Bard, academic freedom and freedom of learning are fundamental. We condemn state-sponsored violence in Iran and stand with those who are fighting against oppression. I want to express particular support for the scholars and students who are bravely resisting efforts to silence them. It has been just a few months since Bard released a statement supporting Ukrainian and Russian scholars and students who were protesting Russian actions in Ukraine. They were subsequently targeted by Russian authorities. The Iranian regime's willingness to bring violence to university and high school campuses in Iran mirrors the reality in Russia: both regimes fear universities and places of learning that uphold freedom of research, teaching and learning as threats to autocracy. Consequently, people and places of learning become some of tyranny’s first victims.

Education is the best hope for the future. Bard will do its best, especially through the Open Society University Network’s Threatened Scholars Initiative, to stand with all students and scholars at risk.

Leon Botstein