September 13, 2007

We received the following note of thanks in response to the campaign of support for Haleh Esfandiari’s release.

Dear Mahnaz,

Now that I am finally home and united with family and friends I want to let you know how much the support of your colleagues and partners at Women's Learning Partnership and the many scholars and activists specializing in women in the Middle East who supported me and appealed for my release has meant to me.

International attention, especially the support of this group has been an important element in securing my freedom. Please pass on this message and let them know I am moved and touched by their warmth and grateful for their support.

Regards,

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August 21, 2007

Haleh Esfandiari, 67, was released on $333,000 bail today after spending more than 100 days in solitary confinement in Evin prison.

Dr. Esfandiari, a dual Iranian-American citizen and director of Middle East programs at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, has been accused of unspecified "crimes against national security." There was no word on whether the government intends to charge her with a crime or allow her to return to the U.S.

Dr. Esfandiari was in Tehran in December 2006 visiting her 93 year-old mother. As she drove to the airport to return to the U.S., three armed men stopped her car and stole her belongings, including her Iranian and U.S. passports. When she applied for a new Iranian passport, she was sent to the intelligence ministry, where she was subjected to interrogations and was eventually put under house arrest. She was taken to prison on May 8, 2007.

WLP circulated a petition calling for the release of Dr. Esfandiari, who has been an outspoken advocate for equal rights for women, especially in Muslim-majority countries. Ninety prominent scholars and professors of Middle East studies signed the petition, which was sent to the Iranian government.

Three other Iranian-Americans are being held in Iran including Kian Tajbakhsh, a consultant for the Open Society Institute, Ali Shakeri, a California businessman, and Parnaz Azima, a correspondent for U.S.-funded Radio Farda.

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Petition for the Release of Dr. Haleh Esfandiari

Signed by Women's Studies and Middle East Scholars

May 22, 2007

We are shocked and dismayed that Dr. Haleh Esfandiari has been charged with endangering "national security". Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, the well-known and highly respected Iranian-born academic and life-long advocate of women's rights was arrested on May 8 in Tehran. Dr. Esfandiari heads the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, a nonpartisan research institution devoted to the promotion of national and international dialogue. In December 2006 she went to Iran to visit her ailing mother. On her way back to the airport, she was accosted by armed men who took all her belongings, including her passport and other documents, at knife-point. Subsequently, she was placed under virtual house arrest and subjected to more than 50 hours of intensive interrogation. On May 8, she was arrested and taken to Evin prison. Her arrest comes at a time of increased harassment and intimidation of women in Iran, especially those involved in civil activism. The non-formal charges advanced by certain semi- governmental press in the country, including Kayhan Daily, though clearly fabricated, underline the precariousness of Dr. Esfandiari's condition.

In her long career, Dr. Esfandiari has been a true advocate for equal rights for women, especially in Muslim-majority countries. In recent years, she has been active in promoting understanding and peace among nations. Her focus has been on facilitating interaction among Iranian and non-Iranian scholars.

We the undersigned strongly deplore the arrest of Dr. Esfandiari and call on the Iranian authorities to release her immediately and to allow her to leave Iran.

• Amal Abdel Hadi, Founder, New Woman Research Foundation
• Marcello Acquarone, National Research Council of Italy
• Mahnaz Afkhami, Founder, Women's Learning Partnership
• Yesim Arat, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi
• Sue Ashtiany, NABARRO
• Barbara Aswad, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Wayne State University
• Margot Badran, Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University
• Nimat Hafez Barazangi, Cornell University
• Beth Baron, Co-Director, Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center, Graduate Center, City University of New York
• Catherine Baylin, The American University in Cairo
• Sharon C.B. Baylin, Instructor, Graduate Department of Education, Goucher College
• Lourdes Beneria, Cornell University
• Marilyn Booth, Director, Program in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Illinois
• Ladan Boroumand, Research Director, Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation
• Beverly Bossler, Professor of History, University of California - Davis
• Donna Lee Bowen, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
• Catherine Cobham, University of St. Andrews, Scotland
• Dana Coelho, University of Maryland
• Chris Crews, Ohio University
• Pezhmann Dailami, Independent Scholar, Schwerin, Germany
• Margaret Dieter, Psychotherapist, New York
• Omnia El Shakry, Department of History, University of California - Davis
• Matthew Evangelista, Professor of Government and Director of the Peace Studies Program, Cornell University
• Nancy Gallagher, Chair of the Middle East Studies Program and Co-Director of the Center for Middle East Studies, University of California - Santa Barbara
• Mara Giglio, Peace and Justice Organizer, Ohio
• Fabio Giomi, University of Bologna
• Ali Granmayeh, Middle East Institute, University of London
• Julio Guzman, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland
• Sondra Hale, Professor of Anthropology and Women’s Studies, University of California - Los Angeles
• Susan Hall, Cornell University
• Frances Hasso, Associate Professor of Gender & Women's Studies and Sociology, Oberlin College
• Mary Elaine Hegland, Associate Professor, Anthropology/Sociology Department and Program for the Study of Women and Gender, Santa Clara University
• Leila Hessini, IPAS
• Matthew Hoover, University of Maryland
• Barbara Ibrahim, American University in Cairo
• Saad Eddin Ibrahim, American University in Cairo
• Heather Irwin, Ohio University
• Alexandra Laetizia Jerome, Instructor of Islamic Studies, Humanities Department, York College of Pennsylvania
• Julie Joosten, Cornell University
• Suad Joseph, Professor of Anthropology & Women's Studies, University of California - Davis
• Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, Director, The Center for Persian Studies, University of Maryland
• Zayn Kassam, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Pomona College
• Kate Lang, Associate Professor and Chair Department of History, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
• Mary Layoun, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Wisconsin - Madison
• Andrea C. Levi, University of Genova
• Patrizia Manduchi, Facoltà di Scienze Politiche, Dipartimento Storico Politico Internazionale, Universita degli Studi di Cagliari
• Mary Martin, Anthropologist, University of the Arts, Philadelphia
• Krisztina Mazo, World Bank
• Erin McNerney, University of Maryland
• Guenter Meyer, Centre for Research on the Arab World, University of Mainz
• Amy Mills, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University of South Carolina
• Val Moghadam, Professor of Sociology and Director of Women's Studies, Purdue University
• Madhu Mukherjee, Research Scholar, University of Kent
• Jehan Mullin, American University of Beirut
• Azar Nafisi, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
• Hannah Pakula, PEN American Center
• Friederike Pannewick, Institute for Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo
• Archana Parashar, Associate Professor, Division of Law, Macquarie University
• Anna Parkinson, Cornell University
• Pamela Day Pelletreau, Independent Scholar
• Jaleh Pirnazar, University of California- Berkeley
• Alexandra Pittman, Assistant Coordinator of the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Program, Boston College
• Samantha Power, Carr Center for Human Rights, Harvard University
• Annalisa Raymer, Cornell University
• Parama Roy, University of California - Davis
• Nerissa Russell, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Cornell University
• Fatima Sbaity-Kassem, Visiting Scholar, Institute for Research on Women & Gender, Columbia University in the City of New York
• Oliver Schlumberger, Senior Researcher, Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik, German Development Institute
• May Seikaly, Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern & Asian Studies, Wayne State University
• Neelam Sethi, Cornell University
• Caroline Seymour-Jorn, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee
• Nada Shabout, Assistant Professor of Art History, University of North Texas
• Amir Sheikhzadegan, University of Zurich, Sociological Institute
• Rieko Shibata, Consultant, Embassy of Japan in Uganda
• Larry Siems, PEN American Center
• Diane Singerman, Department of Government, School of Public Affairs, American University
• Kotaro Sohara, Director, Japanese NGO MPKEN
• Iain Stewart, Senior Lecturer in Law, Macquarie University
• Poopak Taati, Professor of Sociology
• Dede Tete-Rosenthal, Cornell University
• Baki Tezcan, Assistant Professor of History and Religious Studies, University of California - Davis
• Nayereh Tohidi, Professor and Chair, Women’s Studies Department, California State University
• Neda Toloui-Semnani, Consultant on Women and Development
• Namie Tsujigami, Kobe University
• Abraham L. Udovitch, Princeton University
• Lucette Valeusi, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
• Tina Wilchen Christensen, Human Culture Consortium
• Akiko Yoshioka, Research Fellow, JIME Center-IEEJ
• Aleardo Zanghellini, Lecturer in Law, Macquarie University
• Estelle Zinsstag, School of Law, Queen's University Belfast
• Sherifa Zuhur, Director, Institute of Middle Eastern, Islamic, and Diasporic Studies

Petitions of support were also sent by:

• Elizabeth Bieber
• Bennett Blodgett
• Elizabeth Bryan
• Geraldine Chantrel
• Alpa Chheda
• Anastasia Cronin
• Meredith E. Dean
• James DeWeese
• Linda Eckert
• Carolina Fernandez
• Erin Fritch
• Martin Hahn
• Erika Hansen
• Charlotte Kniest
• Sara Logan
• Kit Maloney
• Michael Martin
• Kathleen McBride
• Lisa Navidi
• Whitney Price
• Molly Probst Bravo
• Kathleen Shafer
• Henriette Sinding Aasen
• Sarah Smaller-Swift
• Elijah Torn
• Sara Yontan
• Nadia Ziyadeh