During the years that followed the 1979 Iranian revolution, hundreds of academicians and students were killed as a consequence of a highly violent campaign that aimed to repress academic freedom, silence dissent, and enforce uniformity of thought. The freedoms of speech, association, and peaceful assembly of thousands of students and faculty members were breached through various methods of brutality, torture and detention. The reasons behind the arrests and torture ranged from “participating in illegal gatherings”, “propaganda against the system”, to “insulting the supreme leader or government officials.” Other tens of thousands of students and faculty members were forced out of their education and careers and into exile. These assaults on academic freedom continued all throughout the 1980s and became a salient feature of the newly established republic. Paradoxically, it was in universities where the initial revolutionary ‘texts’, aimed to oust the Shah, were produced and circulated. Indeed, universities came to represent the de facto ‘spaces’ where open-ended critical discourse was taking place. Nevertheless, they became the primary target of attack after the fall of the monarchy and the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini to power.