Daughter of top Iranian official who led regime crackdown fired from US medical school

The daughter of a top Iranian official has been dismissed from employment at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, following US sanctions on her father in the wake of the Iranian regime’s brutal crackdown on protesters, according to the university’s newspaper Saturday.

Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani is the daughter of Ali Larijani, senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and has served as assistant professor at Emory’s medical school, teaching hematology and medical oncology at the prestigious southern US university.

“A physician who is the daughter of a senior Iranian government official is no longer an employee of Emory,” said the university’s Winship Cancer Institute, following requests for comment from media.

“Because this is a personnel matter, we are unable to provide additional information,” Emory added.

Ardeshir-Larijani’s dismissal from Emory came some two weeks after sanctions were placed on her father by the US Treasury Department, in response to his alleged role masterminding the regime’s crackdown on protests that rocked the country this month.

In announcement of the sanctions earlier this month, the treasury said that Ali Larijani “is responsible for coordinating the response to the protests on behalf of the Supreme Leader of Iran and has publicly called for Iranian security forces to use force to repress peaceful protesters.”

Emory University has removed Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, daughter of senior regime official Ali Larijani, from its faculty.

As officials like him are ordering a massacre of thousands of freedom-seeking Iranians, there is no place for their affiliates in our universities. pic.twitter.com/Db7k6ERewo

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— National Union for Democracy in Iran (@NUFDIran) January 24, 2026

While Emory did not specify why exactly Ardeshir-Larijani was removed from employment, the school said: “Our employees are hired in full compliance with state and federal laws and other applicable requirements.”

After learning of her employment at the school, Rep. Buddy Carter, who represents Georgia in Congress, called on Emory to dismiss her and the state’s medical board to revoke her medical license.

“Her father, Ali Larijani, is a senior official of the Islamic Republic of Iran who openly calls for violence against Americans,” Carter said on X.

I wrote a letter to Emory and the Georgia Composite Medical Board demanding Dr. Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani's removal and the revocation of her medical license.

Her father, Ali Larijani, is a senior official of the Islamic Republic of Iran who openly calls for violence against… pic.twitter.com/DOBfVXnd24

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— Buddy Carter (@RepBuddyCarter) January 22, 2026

“Her ties to the largest state sponsor of terrorism are unacceptable and serve only to erode patient safety, public trust, and national security,” he added, demanding her “removal and the revocation” of her ability to practice medicine in the state.

After Carter’s letter, demonstrators gathered outside Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute, demanding that the school follow through on calls to dismiss Ardeshir-Larijani over her father’s role in the Iranian crackdown on the anti-regime protests this past month.

Protestors gathered outside a hospital where the daughter of Ali Larijani, a senior figure in Iran’s political establishment, is reported to work, according to posts shared on social media. The location is referred to as Winship Cancer Institute. pic.twitter.com/Uh861EIuex

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) January 19, 2026

A former member of the Revolutionary Guards, Larijani held the top security position from 2005 to 2007 and was parliamentary speaker from 2008 to 2020. In August Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian appointed Larijani as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.

Protests in Iran began on December 28, triggered by the collapse of the country’s currency, the rial, and swept the country for about two weeks. The government responded with brutal force, killing thousands and arresting tens of thousands.

Although there have been no further demonstrations in Iran for days, the death toll reported by activists has continued to rise as information trickles out despite the most comprehensive internet blackout in Iran’s history, which has now lasted more than two weeks.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency on Saturday put the death toll at 5,137, with the number expected to increase. More than 27,700 people have been arrested, it said.

The group’s figures have been accurate in previous unrest and rely on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths. That death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest there in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran’s government offered its first death toll on Wednesday, saying 3,117 people were killed. It said 2,427 were civilians and security forces, and labeled the rest as “terrorists.” In the past, Iran’s theocracy has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.