Yale fires legal scholar amid review of possible ties to 'sham charity' for designated terror group

Yale Law School has fired an Iranian scholar, accusing her of refusing to cooperate as it probed allegations that she is involved with a group that the U.S. calls a “sham charity” for a designated terrorist organization.

But Helyeh Doutaghi, an outspoken critic of Israel who worked at Yale on a visa as an associate research scholar and deputy director of the school's Law and Political Economy Project, denies being uncooperative. She believes she was fired because of her criticism of the war in Gaza, as colleges around the country face financial pressure to crack down on antisemitism from the Trump administration.

The school said in a statement that Doutaghi, 30, was terminated on March 28 after refusing for several weeks to appear in person to answer questions about "serious allegations" that included a possible connection to the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network — which the U.S. and Canada designated in October as a "sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization."

Yale cited a posting on Samidoun’s website that it says identified Doutaghi as a member of the group among the materials it was reviewing. Samidoun did not return an email message seeking comment.

Doutaghi, however, said that posting was from 2022 when Samidoun wasn’t designated as a terror-supporting group, and she said Yale had not produced any evidence that she was involved in such a group.

Another webpage listed Doutaghi as a speaker in an online panel discussion in October 2024 sponsored by Samidoun and other groups. She said she did not take part in that event because it was canceled or postponed and Samidoun was not the main organizer of the discussion.

Asked by The Associated Press if she was a member of Samidoun or affiliated with it in some other way, she would only say that she is not involved in any group that violates U.S. law.

Doutaghi and her lawyer, Eric Lee, said they offered to answer Yale’s questions about her affiliations in writing. Doutaghi said her concerns about being detained and deported were a factor in not wanting to appear in person.

"This has become part of the fascism that is unfolding in this country, that people who dare to speak up against genocide and the U.S. support for it and complicity in it, they have to expect to pay the price with their careers, with their livelihoods, with their jobs, students with their degrees, as we've seen at Columbia, we've seen at Cornell and elsewhere," she said in a phone interview, referring to pro-Palestinian students at those schools who have been targeted for deportation.