A University of Washington professor said he was terminated as director of the university’s Middle East Center after he sent messages on the center’s listserv that criticized the U.S. and Israel’s military action against Iran and called Zionism “cancerous.”
Aria Fani, an associate professor in UW’s Jackson School of International Studies, said director Daniel Hoffman told him last week he was fired from his leadership role. He remains a professor, though he’s on medical leave this quarter and not teaching.
Hoffman will cover the center’s administrative responsibilities for spring and summer, UW spokesperson Victor Balta said Wednesday afternoon. The university didn’t respond to questions about the reasons for Fani’s firing, citing employee privacy and confidentiality. Fani’s termination was first reported by UW’s The Daily student newspaper.
Fani signed a three-year contract in 2025 to serve as the Middle East Center’s director, responsible for handling programming, outreach to the community and fundraising.
Fani was born and raised in Iran and moved to the U.S. at 18. He teaches courses on Persian and Iranian studies, and his research focuses on modern Persian literature and translation studies. After the Iran war began, Fani wrote a 2,000-plus-word email to the Middle East Center listserv offering his analysis, “which is why I was hired — for my research on Iran,” Fani said. He noted the message contained his views and was not reflective of the diversity of opinions in the center and Jackson School.
On March 18, he sent a second email, with the subject line “More Notes on Iran War.” In that message, he wrote the war isn’t against the Islamic Republic but against the state of Iran and its people, cultural heritage, ecology and civilian infrastructure, and said Israel was committing acts of terrorism. He wrote that he saw Zionism as “cancerous, a potentially fatal outgrowth in our planetary body.”
Soon after, the listserv was placed under moderation, and Fani was no longer able to send emails. He assumed he had violated guidelines, though he said there were no written rules on how the listserv could be used, and thought everything had settled down until he got the phone call last week.
According to Fani, Hoffman told him he was unfit for leadership because his emails had made some members of the Middle East Center community feel attacked for their views. Hoffman directed a request for comment to the UW media relations office.
Fani questioned the timing of the decision because one week prior, UW President Robert Jones made comments about a January symposium called “The World as Palestine: On Advocacy, Activism, and Justice” that had been hosted by the Middle East Center. When asked about the symposium during a town hall on combating antisemitism, Jones said he didn’t know about the one-day Middle East Center event until a day or so in advance and would have preferred there had been more conversation about it beforehand.
“All we can do is try to remind people of their responsibilities as members of the university community,” Jones said at the town hall. “Not trying to tell them that they can’t have a discussion about Palestine or about Israel, but let’s be clear that those discussions need to be had in a way that doesn’t perpetuate an environment where people feel unsafe.”
Fani said Hoffman told him the decision was his alone and not made in response to external complaints or media inquiries, though, according to Fani, Hoffman warned him the second email had been leaked and circulated on social media. Balta said Jones was not involved in the decision to remove Fani and had no knowledge of it.
“I feel profoundly hurt and betrayed,” Fani said. “There’s a chilling effect on, not just my academic freedom, but that of my colleagues, anyone who dares to speak out against the war and against aggression.”
