Contrary to what the article claims, there is no teaching assistant who has worked for Aghdashoo for 12 years.
While The New York Times article includes claims from an anonymous teaching assistant, no employment records match the tenure claimed. The only long-term TA of the academy has confirmed in media interviews that she never witnessed the behavior alleged in the article.
Long-term TA for the school, Ms. Houri Bidad, who served for nearly 30 years alongside Mr. Aghdashloo helping to manage the class, confirmed in a media interview that no person ever served in that role for more than 2 years. The validity and identity of this anonymous “TA” source is highly questionable.
Despite her long-term tenure, Ms. Houri Bidad was never interviewed for The New York Times article, a noteworthy exclusion, and strongly pushes back on the allegations against Mr. Aghdashloo stating:
“For twenty odd years I had the management responsibility at the academy. I was shocked by what I read in New York Times, because we never had such a person at the academy and there was no other manager except me. I knew all the students and I was the supervisor.”
In each session, one of the students that was more talented also helped as TA but somebody who managed for 12 years simply does not exist. I would like to insist on this point, during all this time, I have never heard of any allegations such as the ones published by New York Times against Aghdashloo and I have always respected this fact about him. I have never heard of anybody leaving the academy on bad terms and disrespect.”
