Progressive International Hosts Member of US-Designated Terror Group Samidoun
Helyeh Doutaghi, former Yale scholar fired for membership in U.S.-designated terror group Samidoun, is scheduled to lead "The War on Iran" session for Progressive International's "People's Academy"
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Progressive International is hosting Helyeh Doutaghi as a faculty member in “The People’s Academy,” a Marxist pedagogy program that launched in April 2026. Doutaghi was terminated from Yale Law School in March 2025 after Jewish Onliner’s investigation exposed her ties to Samidoun, which Canada lists as a terrorist entity and which the U.S. Treasury sanctioned in 2024 as a “sham charity” and international fundraiser for the PFLP, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
She is scheduled to teach a session titled “The War on Iran” on May 11, 2026, alongside Max Ajl, a postdoctoral fellow at Ghent University, as part of the organization’s curriculum on “the struggle for national liberation and socialism.”
Terror-Linked Figure in Academic Programming
When Jewish Onliner reported in March 2025 that Doutaghi maintained active ties to Samidoun, Yale Law School initiated an inquiry into her activities. Yale said Doutaghi was terminated on March 28, 2025, after refusing for several weeks to appear in person to answer questions about “serious allegations,” including a possible Samidoun connection
Following her dismissal, former Ayatollah Khamenei’s official media accounts featured videos of Doutaghi, amplifying her profile within Iranian state media structures.
The People’s Academy Curriculum and Faculty Composition
The People’s Academy describes itself as a platform for teaching “the struggle for national liberation and socialism” through the analytical lens of Marxism. The program launched in early April 2026 and features faculty described as “movement leaders and leading scholars of contemporary Marxist thought from around the world.”
The Academy’s faculty also includes Ammar Ali Jan, general secretary of Pakistan’s Haqooq-e-Khalq Party, who appeared as a featured speaker at Australia’s Ecosocialism 2024 conference alongside Leila Khaled, a PFLP member known for her role in the 1969 TWA hijacking and the attempted 1970 El Al hijacking.