After a three-year Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists campaign against Oberlin College’s Islamic studies professor Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, the progressive college let the former Iranian regime ambassador to the United Nations go in November 2023.
The cover-up, however, continued. The student paper, The Oberlin Review, still censors coverage of Mahallati’s dismissal.
The Oberlin Review describes itself as “the newspaper of record for Oberlin College and the city of Oberlin, Ohio” but has refused to publish a report Mahallati’s termination—the college’s most significant academic scandal this century.
After all, the Alliance and human rights groups established beyond any doubt that Mahallati committed “crimes against humanity” when he covered up the mass murder of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.
The Oberlin Review describes itself as “the newspaper of record for Oberlin College and the city of Oberlin, Ohio” but has refused to publish a report [Mohammad Jafar] Mahallati’s termination—the college’s most significant academic scandal this century.
In addition, Iranian-American writer Roya Hakakian found that Mahallati created a sexually hostile environment for an Arab student at Oberlin. The Middle East Forum’s Ben Baird located a legal case that alleged Mahallati engaged in a “sex for grades” scandal when he taught at Columbia University in the 1990s.
Oberlin alumnus and Alliance member Mark Chesler obtained the case involving the sexual misconduct claims levelled by Vida Shammas, a Palestinian Christian former graduate student of Mahallati at Columbia. Mahallati’s alleged sexual predations targeted women from the Middle East.
Iran International TV reported that Mahallati was accused of raping a student. It is unclear why Oberlin College’s management failed to properly vet Mahallati before Oberlin hired him in 2007 and later when they granted him tenure.
None of this information was inaccessible to Oberlin’s student journalists and as others exposed it, it would be logical for The Oberlin Review to cover the story and utilize the newspaper’s presence and access to administrators and alumni to expand its reporting. The paper demurred, however, suggesting an Oberlin College administration crackdown on its coverage.
Prior to Mahallati’s ouster, then-Managing Editor Gigi Ewing, an Iranian-American Baha’i, exposed Mahallati’s campaign at the United Nations to purge Iran of the persecuted Baha’i community.
In fact, the former editorial team at The Oberlin Review penned an editorial takedown of Mahallati and Oberlin College President Carmen Twillie Ambar’s administrative whitewashing of Mahallati’s alleged crimes.
"[The] administration could not provide on the record comment about the reason for his ‘indefinite administrative leave,’ citing confidentiality issues. We did not wish to publish any news piece that makes unconfirmed speculation about the reason for his leave.”
Why, then, did The Oberlin Review go silent on Mahallati? When the Middle East Forum Observer reached out to the editors of The Oberlin Review, Editors in Chief Nikki Keating and Delaney Fox explained, “The Oberlin Review has not been dissuaded by College administration or others from covering the alleged sexual misconduct cases against Mahallati. Instead, administration could not provide on the record comment about the reason for his ‘indefinite administrative leave,’ citing confidentiality issues. We did not wish to publish any news piece that makes unconfirmed speculation about the reason for his leave.”
The Middle East Forum Observer pressed Keating and Fox about the paper’s failure to report on Mahallati in light of widespread media coverage, including in the regional Ohio press, the Chronicle, the New York Post, the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail, among other outlets.
Keating and Fox repeated, “The Review has given its statement regarding your article. Once again, the Review and its editors have not been dissuaded by College administrators or others from covering Mahallati’s ‘indefinite administrative leave’ or alleged sexual misconduct.” Still, with Mahallati’s alleged misconduct now documented public knowledge, the student journalists do not explain their continued choice to ignore the story. Such willingness to accept administration stonewalling suggests circling the wagons to protect an ideological agenda and/or shield Oberlin from criticism that trumps any quest for truth.
When asked if Oberlin College interfered in the Review’s editorial process, Andrea Simakis, a spokeswoman for the college, told the Middle East Forum Observer, “The Oberlin Review is an independent student newspaper operating on Oberlin’s campus. Editorial decisions are entirely up to the students running the paper. Neither I nor anyone else in the Oberlin College administration suggested that student journalists ‘spike’ coverage of Professor Mahallati.”
Simakis added: “Professor Mahallati was placed on indefinite administrative leave on November 28, 2023. We do not generally comment on the details of personnel matters.”
Another scandal now brews at Oberlin. Matthew Berkman, an assistant professor of Jewish Studies who defended pro-Hamas protesters and Mahallati reportedly will teach a course on “Jews and Power.” Simakis told the Middle East Forum Observer that “Matthew Berkman’s course pushes back against toxic antisemitic tropes by focusing on the historical roots of these tropes, as well as the historical response of the Jewish people to antisemitism.” Berkman declined to respond to a Middle East Forum Observer press query. The Oberlin Review has yet to report upon the controversy.
