TEHRAN — Iranian American scholar Haleh Esfandiari was interrogated for four months by Iranian officials before being thrown into this city's notorious Evin prison, her U.S. employer said Thursday.
Esfandiari's troubles began in December when knife-wielding masked men stopped her on her way to the airport and seized her travel documents. When she tried to get a new passport, Esfandiari was instead dragged into the dark world of Iran's intelligence services, according to a statement released by the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington.
Her detention illustrates the increasing risk faced by Iranians with dual citizenship, especially scholars, who venture back to Iran. Her case also sheds light on the methods of Iran's domestic security services, a sprawling constellation of secretive organizations, some under the auspices of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security and others answering to more nebulous entities.
"She was interrogated almost every day," said Esfandiari's husband, Shaul Bakhash, a professor at George Mason University in Virginia. "Sometimes she would be questioned seven or eight hours in a single day."
Bakhash said he and the Wilson Center initially decided not to publicize her case, fearing it would only complicate matters.
Esfandiari, director of the Middle East program at the Wilson Center, apparently stands accused of collaborating with Israel, an enemy of Iran's Shiite Muslim regime, although the Tehran government has announced no formal charges.
Raja News, a hard-line Iranian news outlet associated with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, alleged that Esfandiari had converted to Judaism and was a "Zionist agent" who worked with the Israeli lobby in Washington. Bakhash derided those statements as fabricated.
In recent months, Iranian authorities have arrested philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo, who holds Canadian and Iranian passports, and accused him of collaborating with U.S.-funded groups trying to overthrow the Iranian government. Jahanbegloo was allowed to leave the country after he publicly confessed to the accusations.
Parnaz Azima, an Iranian American reporter for Radio Farda, a U.S.-funded station, had her passport taken away several months ago when she arrived in Tehran to visit her ailing mother. Her lawyer, Mohammed Hussein Aghasi, was told that he and his client would be summoned to a special "revolutionary" court for further interrogation.
