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The text of the email:
Dear Sir, Madam,
I am writing to formally request the cancellation of the event scheduled for Wednesday, January 28, featuring Ms. Farnaz Fassihi.
At this moment, the people of Iran are facing mass killings, widespread executions, and systematic repression by the Islamic Republic. Under these circumstances, granting a prestigious academic platform to a journalist whose reporting has repeatedly echoed regime narratives serves no academic or ethical purpose and risks legitimizing ongoing crimes against humanity.
In 2022, while Iranian women were being arrested, beaten, and killed in the streets, Ms. Fassihi publicly circulated the false claim that the so-called “morality police” had been dissolved—a claim later proven untrue and widely recognized as regime disinformation. Such reporting caused real harm by misleading the international community during a moment of extreme violence.
Providing an academic platform to whitewash or normalize these narratives is not journalism, and it stands in direct contradiction to the values of integrity, accountability, and ethical leadership that Northwestern University and Kellogg claim to uphold.
This request is not about silencing debate. It is about refusing to legitimize propaganda while Iranians are being killed for demanding basic freedoms.
I respectfully urge Kellogg School of Management to cancel this event or, at minimum, postpone it until such time that hosting it would not contribute to the erasure of victims and the normalization of state violence.
History will remember who chose convenience over conscience.
Sincerely,
[your full name]
Concerned Member of the Iranian Community