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The Educated Dictators of Iran

Prof. Kazem Kazerounian - 8/26/2008

The fiasco of the clumsily forged Oxford doctoral diploma of the Iranian interior minister is comically tragic. Unfortunately for the interior Minister Ali Kordan, he will not be able to join the elite group of Dr. Ahmadinejad, Dr. Larijani, Dr. Khatami, Dr. Maleki, Dr. Rezaii, Dr. Motaki, Dr. Jajili and a thousand other officials with a PhD degree any time soon. However this debacle raises the question, why Tehran’s rulers feel the need to carry the title of “Doctor” to govern?

More than anyone else, these inept executives are conscious of their own incompetence. Most of them have climbed up the same four step career ladder: Revolutionary Guard, prosecutor/torturer/executioner, provincials governor, city mayor or division director, and finally minister/MP/president. Their busy vocational path has left little time for learning skills needed to run the government. Purchasing a PhD diploma has been the logical choice for these rulers to purge intellectuals and educated workforce, and place themselves better to rip off the county’s wealth.

The popularity of the doctoral title among the theocratic dictators is also due to the ill reputation and disgrace associated with religious titles such as “Hojatoleslam” and “Ayatollah” among people. Such religious titles in Iran are now symbols of demagogy, brutality, and despotism.

For those officials who are engaged in interactions with the international communities , such as nuclear negotiation teams, or ambassadors, the doctoral title is used to conceal insincerity and deceitful intents and cunning tactics.

Forging degrees is a less common method used by the Iranian rulers to obtain their doctoral degrees. There are three methods that are ordinarily used by the “science loving” theocratic dictators. The first one is coerce the otherwise reputable universities to offer them the PhD diploma. The recipients in these category are usually influential officials in powerful positions. “Dr.” Mahmood Ahmadinejd is in this category. He received his PhD degree in engineering when he was a governor. His claim that an Iranian teenager generated nuclear energy in her garage using a bunch of pots and pans attests to his scientific proficiency.

The second method of obtaining the PhD diploma is used by the lower ranked level officials. Such diplomas are given by peculiar institutes put together and tightly controlled by the regime’s ideological divisions. For example, “Dr.” Abbas Malehi , former revolutionary guard, prison prosecutor, vice minister, and currently senior advisor to the supreme leader and Professor at Harvard obtained his degree from “High University for Strategic Sciences in Iran” controlled by revolutionary guards.

The bulk of Iranian government bureaucrats get their “doctor” title the old fashion way; They simply buy the degree. There are several diploma mill operations in Iran with bogus connections to some international institutes. One such major operation was the “Hawaii University” in Iran which through several offices granted about 5000 PhD degrees mostly to the government officials, without requiring them to attend a single class or exam. These degrees ranged from medicinal doctors to PhD in political, physical, biological or social sciences. “Hawaii University” operation was brought to a halt when its perpetrator, an Iranian expatriate, was prosecuted by the State of Hawaii for fraud. Other diploma mills continue to operate in Iran.

Those who have spent time in Savak prisons under Shah can tell you that their torturers and prosecutors used to call each other by the title of “doctor”. History has an amusing way of repeating.