"period following the Iranian Revolution, when the academia of Iran was purged of Western and non-Islamic influences (including traditionalist unpolitical Islamic doctrines) to align them with the revolutionary and political Islam."
"The cultural revolution sometimes involved violence in taking over the university campuses, as higher education in Iran had many secular and leftist forces who were opposed to Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic state in Iran"
"How many students or faculty were killed is not known"
"In another part of the world, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 put an end to a 2500-year old monarchy and replaced it with a presidency. This Revolution, as Graham put it, was 'one of the most stunning political reversals of the century'. Through what was called the Cultural Revolution, the new Iranian regime closed all colleges and universities in summer, 1980. The government claimed that the system of education should undergo Islamisation. This meant that education must correspond to the Islamic ideology."
"In a comparative study, Sobhe (1982) argues that Iran's Cultural Revolution made education subservient to religion, while China's Cultural Revolution made education subservient to politics"
"On March 20, 1980, Khomeini's televised New Year (Norwruz) speech initiated Iran's Cultural Revolution. With the mandate to cleanse Iranian society of Westoxication, those who answered the Imam's call helped purge th University of "undesirable" faculty, students, staff, and curricula."
"Iran's Cultural Revolution initiated by Khomeini's decree in June 1980 was the start of a widespread purge (paksazi; literally, "purification") of suspect elements at all levels, from elementary schools to universities. Probably inspired by the Chinese Cultural Revolution - a torrent of intimidation, terror, massacre, and destruction of mostly academics and intellectuals that consumed Mao Zedong's China between 1966 and 1976 - the Iranian version was far tamer, less bloody, and largely concerned with control of educational levers at all levels. It was nevertheless deeply damaging to the fabric of Iranian education, professional fields, technological skills, and most of all, branches of the humanities." "By mid-1981, in actions parallel to ousting Banisadr and crushing Mojahedin, mobs in Tehran and other provinces randomly attacked university campuses, beating up and injuring students, driving out the left from their offices and paramiltary bases, and in turn occupying campuses. To complete their task, on June 4, 1980, the council ordered the closure of the universities nationwide. They remained closed for the following three years to give ample time to systematically cull undesirable elements." "Under the rubric of reevaluation, thousands were expelled or subjected to Islamic ideological tests or sent off to revolutionary courts. The adverse effects of depriving universities of some of their most skilled and qualified faculty, who were labeled "antirevolutionary," "idol worshippers," and "decadent," soon became apparent at all levels. Intimidated and weary of the ponderous Islamicizing measures, thounsands resigned and left Iran or went into businesses or private practice. Professors of humanities and social sciences, in particular, were targets of academic cleansing, having been accused of facilitating a Western "cultural onslaught" (tahajom-e farhangi) or entertaining an "un-Islamic" lifestyle."
Khosrow Sobhe, "Education in Revolution: Is Iran Duplicating the Chinese Cultural Revolution?" Comparative Education 18, no. 3 (1982): 271-280.
Razavi, Reza (2009). "The Cultural Revolution in Iran, with Close Regard to the Universities, and Its Impact on the Student Movement". Middle Eastern Studies. 45 (1): 1–17. doi:10.1080/00263200802547586. JSTOR40262639. S2CID144079439.
"From its establishment in 1979, the Islamic Republic has engaged in a totalising project of cultural hegemony that dictates what counts as acceptable 'cultural expression' and the forms this may take. The state spends a big budget on ideological maintenance and its public presence."
