My wife, a prisoner in Iran (travesty of justice in Iran)

The Los Angeles Times ^ | May 25, 2007 | Shaul Bakhash

[Clintonfatigued]

ON MAY 8, the walls of Tehran's Evin prison closed around my wife, Haleh Esfandiari, a 67-year-old scholar, grandmother and dual citizen of Iran and the United States.

Haleh, director of the Middle East Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, went to Iran in late December to visit her 93-year-old mother, a trip she has made almost twice each year for a decade or more. On Dec. 30, on her way to the airport to fly back to Washington, she was stopped by three masked, knife-wielding men who took all her belongings, including her Iranian and U.S. passports. In retrospect, it was clearly an inside job; Iran's Ministry of Intelligence fielding "highwaymen" against Iran's own citizens.

Without a passport, Haleh was forced to return to her mother's apartment. When she tried to apply for a new one, a member of the Ministry of Intelligence took her aside. Over the next six weeks, Haleh was subjected to 50 hours of interrogation.

At first, she told me by e-mail and phone, her inquisitors asked about her work, who spoke at what conference, where and when — things they could easily find with the click of a mouse on the Wilson Center's website. But Haleh told them what she remembered about the lectures, exchanges, panels and classes she had arranged. To help with the details, I e-mailed piles of downloaded documents at night.

If the questions seemed almost laughable, the interrogations were not. They were accompanied by threats, accusations and intimidation — and always the implication that Haleh was involved in something nefarious. She also was pressured to provide information she did not have, to identify alleged "networks" of whose existence she was unaware, to admit that she was holding things back. She refused.

[Clintonfatigued]

Remember, Islam is a Religion of Peace!!!/s

[gotribe]

Jimmy Carter just keeps on giving.

[iopscusa]

Maybe this pro Iranian “scholar”, Haleh Esfandiari, will give up that Iranian 1/2 of her Citizenship now.
Don’t trade any thing for this one...she is getting the justice she deserves!

[edcoil]

Sucks to be you. Why was she in Iran? Tells you that pit not worth visiting.

Remembering the 300.

[HungarianGypsy]

The article says she was visiting her mom.

[edcoil]

Without a passport?

[Logophile]

Why was she in Iran? Tells you that pit not worth visiting.

From the article:

Haleh, director of the Middle East Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, went to Iran in late December to visit her 93-year-old mother, a trip she has made almost twice each year for a decade or more.

[HungarianGypsy]

She had one. She was mugged. Her passports stolen.

[Logophile]

Maybe this pro Iranian “scholar”, Haleh Esfandiari, will give up that Iranian 1/2 of her Citizenship now. Don’t trade any thing for this one...she is getting the justice she deserves!

Has she committed a crime?

[edcoil]

Said she had two, I do not believe this story at all. An Iranian in Iraq losing an American passport and her iranian passport.

This is yet again internet lore.

[Logophile]

An Iranian in Iraq losing an American passport and her iranian passport.

Tehran is in Iran, not Iraq.

[HungarianGypsy]

Whether it is or not, I don’t know. I’ve met people who had everything except the clothing off their backs stolen during some muggings.

[danmar]

dual citizen of Iran and the United States.

As a dual citizen you are held responsible to the country's laws of citizenship to the fullest extent.
She should have terminated her citizenship to Iran. As a US citizen the Iranians have limited powers to restrict her travel/presence in Iran.

[ishabibble]

You’re very patient. I would have been shouting by now.

I have to say, as sad and heartbreaking as this story is, the very idea of visiting Iran at this time is just incredibly bad judgment. I understand about her aged mother, but still...would she have gone to Berlin in April, 1945?

I will say a prayer for this woman and her family, I hope that no harm comes to her, isn’t that a ridiculous thing to say? The woman is a prisoner in a hellhole run by a madman.
My prayers for her, anyhow.

[Navy Patriot]

Standard operating procedure for the terrorist Iranian government, enabled by the terrorist sycophant Jimmah Cartah.

[apro]

Its a real shame what that country has become.

Before the Revolution:

The original Iranian Flag

(Top Left) :Princess’ Shams, Ashraf and Queen Taj Ol’ Molouk leave the Palace without the Veil in support of Reza Shah’s emancipation Law (1936). (Top Right) : Farrokh Parsa first woman minister of education in 1968 ( She was executed after the Revolution). (Below Left to Right ) First Women Association in 1935. Woman pilot. Women deputies in front of the Parliament mid 1960’s. ©ParsTimes.com

Left:old Iran - Iranian Jews celebrating the anniversary of the Constituional Revolution. Right: modern Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmaninejad:"Israel must be wiped off the map".

After the Revolution:

Flag of the mullahs

Photographs from the first weeks after the 1979 revolution of women demonstrating against the new repressed laws forced upon them.

Safe return to Mrs. Esfandiari.