September 06, 2019
Sadeq Zibakalam, a political science professor at the University of Tehran and prominent liberal intellectual, has received an additional one-year prison sentence for his outspoken views against the Islamic Republic.
Zibakalam was charged with “spreading lies for the purpose of agitating the public,” after he compared the employment costs of hiring 300,000 clergymen to the wealth of three poor provinces within Iran.
Zibakalam has been something of a “token critic” long allowed by the regime to appear on state television and make comments critical of the regime.
After a cleric suggested hiring clergymen to oversee “public morality,” Zibakalam argued in a short op-ed that the costs would exceed the budgets of three poor provinces and placed religious authority at the forefront of Iranian government aspirations over concerns for public welfare.
The one-year prison sentence will be added to his already pending 18-month prison sentence for previously spreading “propaganda against the regime.” He has not yet been called to prison to serve either sentence.
“Zibakalam is a unique personality in Iran for his unabashed criticism of policies and comments that would easily land others in jail,” one anonymous commentator told Radio Farda. “Some believe his outspokenness is tolerated as a ‘safety valve’ in the restricted environment of the Islamic Republic.”
He often appears on state media, “where he speaks critically against conservative and hardliner ideas – a rare occurrence in Iran.”
But it appears the tolerance of him may now be wearing out.
Just last May, Zibakalam sparked outrage in the conservative media with a tweet that questioned the government’s bellicose stance and actions towards Israel.
“If, God forbid, there is a war between us and Israel, we will have to tell future generations why we fought a war with a country 2,000 kilometers away that never threatened us or had any other dispute with us,” Zibakalam wrote on Twitter May 10. “What were all those casualties, and the billions of dollars in military expenditures for?”
Zibakalam’s comment came the same day the Israeli Air Force struck dozens of Iranian targets in Syria, the most significant confrontation since the recent rise in tensions between the two countries over Iran’s involvement in the Syrian civil war.
The tweet attracted 2,500 comments and was marked as favorite almost 10,000 times on the social media platform.
Zibakalam, who participated as a student in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has, like many former revolutionaries, gravitated toward more liberal positions in the decades since. He has taken controversial stances against Iran’s nuclear program and the country’s official anti-Americanism.