Petition to Expel Adjunct Professor Rob Sobhani from Georgetown University

Georgetown University
Office of the Provost
Professor James J. O'Donnell
Suite 650, Bunn Intercultural Center
Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20057-1014
Voice: 202-687-6400
FAX: 202-687-5103
email : [email protected]

Dear Professor James J. O'Donnell,

It should be brought to your attention that one of your professors, Mr. Rob Sobhani, has been slandering Iranians on repeated occasions. On May sixth, at a seminar sponsored by the Hudson Institute and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and again on May seventeenth, at the University of Washington in Seattle, Mr. Sobhani delivered a speech that included a very damaging, untruthful, and anti-Iranian statement. The specific comment of concern can be found below, highlighted and in bold.

Rob Sobhani: "There's a young lady here in the United States who is in her mid thirties. She's a Deputy Secretary of Education in the United States, an American Iranian. That same 30-something in Iran has to prostitute herself to make ends meet."

Mr. Sobhani's irresponsible and inappropriate statement implies that Iranian women are prostitutes, however competent they might be. His allegation is both false and malicious. What is more, the statement was made on two separate occasions, indicating that its use was not a careless, accidental, or isolated incident but was part of a systematic, deliberate attempt to defame a targeted community.

The Iranian-American community is outraged. Legal action against Mr. Sobhani is under consideration.

Where Georgetown University is concerned in this matter is in the extent that the institution supports Mr. Sobhani, financially, academically, and publicly. Mr. Sobhani has been hurting the Iranian community for years. The offensive and profane comment in question is only one example of Mr. Sobhani's persuasive technique. His manner of argument uses the degradation of the image of Iranians to that of a helpless, backward people as a tactic to gain support for his political agenda. The consequences of Mr. Sobhani's method are that he demonizes the Iranian people, generating hate, racism, and prejudice. By hiring Mr. Sobhani, Georgetown University is providing him with a platform from which to speak and to propagate his views. Mr. Sobhani's public presence and authority as an "expert on Middle Eastern affairs" is founded on the academic prestige of a Georgetown University professorship. In giving Mr. Sobhani's voice legitimacy, Georgetown University contributes to his anti-Iranian campaign.

We, the undersigned, request that Georgetown University expel adjunct professor Mr. Rob Sobhani and to ask that Georgetown University publicly announce that the institution does not support or share Mr. Sobhani's views.