Anti-Iranian regime dissidents have been exposing regime-backed professors across the US, but recently they claim the Change.org platform has been taking some of their petitions down, which they blame on interference from the Universities where the professors work.
The Alliance Against the Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA) said Change.org last week stopped accepting donations on a petition against Sina Azodi, whom it accuses of being a pro-regime professor at George Washington University, and who has been promoting a book he wrote on Iran’s nuclear program.
The group is calling on the university to conduct “an independent and transparent review” of Azodi’s work and recent comments.
Change.org removed an online petition demanding that George Washington University conduct “an independent and transparent review” of Sina Azodi, an assistant professor of Middle East politics. elliott.gwu.edu“This is a man who stated in a BBC interview that the regime has the right to use coercive power to silence protestors and who has documented ties to NIAC, the de-facto lobby of the Islamic Republic in America, spreading regime-sourced propaganda on US soil,” said Ehsan Nouri of the University of Virginia in an X post last week, referring to lobbying group the National Iranian American Council. Azodi is scheduled to speak at the university on April 27.
Azodi did not return a request for comment from The Post.
Three of AAIRIA’s petitions have been removed from the site, the group claims.
A spokesperson for the company said the petitions have not been removed but are currently under review by their attorneys, and noted other petitions backed by the group remain on the site.
“Change.org is an open platform where people can make their voices heard. We maintain Community Guidelines that prohibit misinformation, defamation, and content that could harm individuals,” she told The Post.
“When complaints are filed about content on our platform, we are obligated to review them — a standard process applied consistently across all petitions.”
Earlier this year, Change.org, which started in 2007, removed a petition demanding the firing of Leila Khatami, a professor of mathematics at Union College in Schenectady and daughter of Iran’s former President Mohammad Khatami.
Iranian human rights activists mounted a petition drive to pressure the University of Arkansas to fire Shirin Saeidi. Change.orgLawdan Bazargan, a former political prisoner in Iran who runs AAIRIA in the US, said the petition for Khatami, who is still employed by the school, had collected more than 80,000 signatures when it was removed last month.
Change.org also took down a petition calling for an investigation into Zeinab Hajjarian, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, who is daughter of Iranian intelligence officer Saeed Hajjarian.
“We think that the universities are likely putting pressure on Change.org,” said Bazargan.
A petition has collected almost 75,000 signatures calling on the US administration to revoke Trita Parsi’s US residency status over his ties to the National Iranian American Council, a pro-Iranian regime group. Change.org“The removal of these petitions raises serious concerns about free expression and civil society’s ability to organize around issues of public interest,” she continued.
Some of the AAIRA’s petitions have met with success, including one to oust an antisemitic professor at the University of Arkansas.
Bazargan credited her group’s petition with alerting the school to anti-Israel comments from tenured professor Shirin Saeidi, former director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies at the school.
Shirin Saeidi, who headed up the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Arkansas, was fired by the school earlier this month. C-SpanThat Change.org petition collected 4,516 signatures, and was addressed to the president of the University of Arkansas and its board of trustees.
Saeidi was suspended in December for her attacks on Israel and using university title letterhead to praise Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, then fired from the university earlier this month.
Activists are citing “a potential national security threat” involving Shahin Farrokhnia, who works at a US defense contractor that is involved in projects for the Department of Defense. Change.orgAnother recent petition is addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing “a potential national security threat” linked to Shahin Farrokhnia, an employee at BlueHalo, a US defense contractor “engaged in classified projects for the Department of Defense.”
Khatami, Hajjarian, Farrokhnia and BlueHalo did not respond to a request for comment.
Farrokhnia is married to Negar Mortazavi, a Washington, DC-based journalist who is the host of “The Iran Podcast” and a former communications assistant at the NIAC, which some legislators have accused of lobbying for Iran.






