Pâksâzi literally means cleaning up. As a state practice it names the ideological removal of academics, journalists, judges, and civil servants from their posts. The first major wave was the 1980 Cultural Revolution that shut Iranian universities for three years; smaller waves follow every protest cycle.
Paksazi runs through review boards (hey'at-e gozinesh) that vet political-religious conformity for hiring and retention. Targets are not formally charged. They are simply not renewed, not allowed back into the building, removed from the org chart. The damage is administrative, the message is unmistakable.
The regime calls this cleaning. Everyone affected calls it what it is. We document the word because Iranian state media uses it openly, and learners need to recognize the euphemism for the mechanism it actually describes.
Pâksâzi shows up in news headlines, university announcements, and ministry statements. Without context it sounds like janitorial work. With context it names the central tool of ideological enforcement inside the Iranian deep state.
پاکسازی (pâksâzi) is built from پاک (clean) plus the verbal noun ساختن (to make). Literally it is cleaning up. In Iran the word has a specific institutional meaning: the systematic removal of people from universities, ministries, and state media on ideological grounds. The first wave hit in 1980 with the Cultural Revolution, when thousands of pre-revolution academics were fired and universities were shut for three years. The mechanism never went away. Every protest cycle since (1999, 2009, 2017, 2019, 2022) has been followed by quieter rounds of paksazi against professors, journalists, and civil servants who signed open letters or refused to recant.
Sources
- Human Rights Watch: Iranian Academia Under Attack (2010)
- Amnesty International: Trampling Humanity (2021)
- Dehkhoda Dictionary: پاکسازی
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