After a doctor who is the daughter of a senior Iranian government official departed from Emory University’s medical school, the professor who serves as head of Emory’s faculty leadership council criticized the school for letting her go, Jewish Insider has learned. 

Noelle McAfee, a professor in Emory’s philosophy department, sent a scathing e-mail to the university and School of Medicine faculty expressing concern that the school’s dismissal of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, the daughter of the secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council for National Security, was a politically motivated firing. 

McAfee, who was arrested in April 2024 for her participation in a campus anti-Israel encampment, said faculty members have expressed to her that Ardeshir-Larijani’s departure is “an act of unbecoming of our tolerant, free, academic community.”

“It’s extremely disappointing to see that our leadership here at Emory are consistently caving to political pressure and never taking the side of faculty,” McAfee wrote, quoting an anonymous faculty member, expressing concern that Ardeshir-Larijani, whose father is responsible for the Islamic Republic’s national security, didn’t receive due process. 

On Jan. 19, demonstrators gathered outside Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute to protest the university’s employment of Ardeshir-Larijani. 

But McAfee claimed that many faculty members were outraged over the loss of Ardeshir-Larijani to the medical school staff. (In an email to medical school faculty, Emory School of Medicine Dean Sandra Wong did not specify whether Ardeshir-Larijani, who was an assistant professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at the medical school, was fired or quit.)

McAfee wrote that faculty also told her, “This is creating an actively hostile work environment here at Emory… motivated by a desire to minimize political pressure on Emory to ensure continuance of federal funding” and “it’s extremely disappointing to see that our leadership here at Emory are consistently caving to political political pressure and never taking the side of faculty.” 

In a statement to JI, McAfee said her email was “not weighing in on an employment matter one way or another.” 

In 2024, Emory School of Medicine fired another oncologist, Professor Abeer AbouYabis, due to her social media posts glorifying Hamas in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. The school’s University Senate Committee for Open Expression submitted an investigation report at the time, stating that “AbouYabis’s Open Expression rights likely were violated.” 

Emory University did not respond to a request for comment from JI inquiring whether the school was aware of Ardeshir-Larijani’s familial ties when it hired her.