The daughter of a top Iranian official was quietly ousted from her position at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, following heavy backlash over her employment.
Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, an assistant professor at the school’s prestigious Winship Cancer Institute and the daughter of Ali Larijani — one of Iran’s most powerful officials — is no longer employed at Emory, a university spokesperson told the California Post on Sunday.
“A physician who is the daughter of a senior Iranian government official is no longer an employee of Emory,” Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute public relations director Andrea Clement said.
Notably, Ardeshir-Larijani’s father is a high-ranking official in the Islamic Republic’s brutal regime, where he serves as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
Public pressure had reportedly been mounting on the university to terminate Ardeshir-Larijani amid Iran’s bloody crackdown on protesters that began in December.
Additionally, an online petition calling on the U.S. government to deport Ardeshir-Larijani has garnered nearly 100,000 signatures at the time of this writing.
“The Iranian government killed more than 1,000 protesters in just 72 hours, from January 8 to January 10, 2026, during peaceful protests,” the petition states, added that “while Iranian officials constantly chant ‘death to the United States,’ many of them have family members living safely” in the U.S.
The petition goes on to accuse Ardeshir-Larijani of having “never separated herself from her father,” who is “one of the closest allies” of Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei.
“While she lives peacefully in the U.S., countless young Iranians are dying in Iran due to the policies and decisions made by Ali Khamenei and his inner circle, including her father,” the declaration reads.
The petition then reveals that Ardeshir-Larijani’s father reacted to President Donald Trump saying he would support Iranian protesters by accusing Trump of “interfering in Iran’s internal affairs” and warning the president “that the United States should be concerned about the safety of its soldiers.”
“We, the Iranian people, demand the deportation of these individuals,” the petition proclaims, before asserting, “They benefit from the wealth of the Iranian people and live safely in the United States, while their families rule a brutal dictatorship in Iran.”
Ali Larijani also allegedly terrorized people in Tehran and has referred to the U.S. as the “Great Satan,” the New York Post reported.
He was also hit with U.S. sanctions a few weeks ago, for being “one of the first Iranian leaders to call for violence in response to the legitimate demands of the Iranian people.”
As for Ardeshir-Larijani, she was granted a green card in 2021, during former President Joe Biden’s term, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek a few weeks ago.
McLaughlin added that “the Trump Administration is reviewing all immigration benefits granted by the Biden administration to aliens from Countries of Concern, including Iran.”