US university fires top Iran official Ali Larijani's daughter amid Washington-Tehran tensions

A university in the US has fired the daughter of top Iranian official Ali Larijani from her post amid calls for her dismissal, the university’s newspaper confirmed on Saturday.

Dr. Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, a cancer specialist and assistant professor at Emory University Medical School’s Department of Hematology and Oncology in Atlanta, Georgia, has now had her profile removed from the faculty’s page.

It is believed that Dr. Ardeshir-Larijani was let go from her position sometime this week, after Sandra Wong, Dean of the School of Medicine at Emory University, informed faculty members in an email dated 24 January that she was no longer employed there.

"A physician who is the daughter of a senior Iranian government official is no longer an employee of Emory," the Winship Cancer Institute confirmed, without adding any further information.

On 19 January, a protest outside the university by dozens of Iranian Americans called for her dismissal over the crackdown on protests in Iran.

Activists say at least 5,002 people have been killed across the country, however these figures have not been independently verified.

At the university, demonstrators held signs such as "Enemy of the USA welcomed by Emory" and "Did you know Iran terror chief’s daughter is your co-worker?" in protest against Dr. Ardeshir-Larijani’s continued employment at the university.

Larijani is the Secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security (SCNS) and a senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He served as the Speaker of Parliament between 2008 and 2020, and is a former military officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The US placed sanctions on Larijani on 16 January in response to Tehran’s crackdown on the protests, which hit Iran in late December.

Additionally, a petition on the change.org website calling for Dr. Ardashir-Larijani’s deportation from the US has gained close to 100,000 signatures.

The lung cancer specialist has been living in the US for several years, and was given a US Green Card, which grants permanent residency in the country in 2021, according to US reports.

The demonstrations in Iran, which have spanned 180 cities, started off as rallies against economic woes, exacerbated by high inflation, US sanctions, and the dwindling value of the rial currency. The protests, however, soon developed into a broader anti-government movement, calling for an end to the regime.

US President Donald Trump threatened to "intervene" if Iranian authorities violently suppressed the demonstrations. Israel, Iran’s long-term foe, also chimed in, claiming it stood with the Iranian people’s "desire for freedom and liberty".