New York, May 31, 2007 – President Lee. C. Bollinger of Columbia University issued a statement today regarding the detainment of Iranian-American scholars Kian Tajbakhsh, a graduate of Columbia University and Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program, Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. According to news reports, the scholars have been imprisoned since May 11, 2007.

“Columbia University is urgently concerned about the safety, well-being and human rights of two Iranian-American scholars who are under arrest in Iran. Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh is an expert on urban planning who has worked for multilateral, international, and Iranian public organizations. Dr. Tajbakhsh earned his Ph.D. and Master of Philosophy from Columbia University, where he studied urban planning and sociology. Dr. Haleh Esfandiari is director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. Both were reportedly detained and charged with ‘endangering national security through propaganda against the system and espionage for foreigners.’ These reports are deeply troubling to our university community, and we urge that these scholars be released on humanitarian grounds.”

State, Treasury Get Involved In Effort to Unlock Accounts
By Robin Wright

It was a hard enough day for Shaul Bakhash, as he dealt with the ongoing drama surrounding the imprisonment in Iran of his wife, noted American scholar Haleh Esfandiari. Then he found an express letter on the doorstep of his Potomac home yesterday morning announcing that Citibank had frozen his wife’s bank accounts on grounds that she is now a “resident” of Iran.

Read the full story here

Ms Ebadi highlights the illegality of Haleh’s detention. She also recounts how the Iranian government denied Haleh’s basic rights protected and recognized by Iran’s own constitution and laws. Representatives from Ms Ebadi’s office were denied acces to Haleh’s file, they were also not allowed to visit her in Evin Prison. Moreover, the investigative judge claims that Haleh has declined the services of a legal counsel. Ms Ebadi also describes the harsh conditions in Evin Prison.

The Woodrow Wilson Center issued a statement on May 29th in which the president and director, Lee H. Hamilton, expresses the organization’s disappointment with the charges made against Haleh and appeals to the Iranian government to release her.

“We are extremely disheartened to receive this news…Haleh is a scholar. The work she does at the Wilson Center is open, non-partisan, and includes a broad range of views. At the Wilson Center, we do not take positions on issues, but rather, we bring all sides of an issue together for dialogue. As director of the Middle East Program, Haleh ensured that there was an open dialogue and that she convened meetings which allowed participants and attendees to discuss all views. We do not engage in propaganda. The Wilson Center receives zero funding from the U.S. government’s fund to promote democracy in Iran. Her detention is an affront to the rule of law and common decency. The Wilson Center’s message to the Iranian government is simple: Let Haleh go.”

For the full statement please click here

The scholar’s daughter, Haleh Bakhash, speaks openly about her mother. She’s joined by Carla Koppell of the Initiative for Inclusive Security. Together, they provide an update on the situation.

Listen to the NPR broadcast HERE

The government of Iran formally charged Haleh early Tuesday morning. The procedures are questionable, and the laws unclear. The New York Times published the Associated Press Report; the following is an excerpt:

”Esfandiari has been formally charged with endangering national security through propaganda against the system and espionage for foreigners,” spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters. ”She has been informed of the charges against her.”
Under Iranian law, the distinction between someone being accused and charged is less clear than in the United States and many Western countries, especially in matters of national security. Security courts have wide latitude, with the option of dropping the proceedings at any time or even holding trials in secret.

For the full article, please visit the New York Times HERE

Representatives Chris Van Hollen (D-8th/MD), Tom Lantos (D-12/CA), Elijah E. Cummings, (D-7th/MD), Wayne T. Gilchrest (R-1st/MD), and Gary Ackerman (D-5th/NY) introduced resolution, H.RES. 430 on May 22nd. The resolution calls for the release of Iranian American scholar Dr. Haleh Esfandiari.

H.RES.430 calls on the government of Iran to immediately release Esfandiari and all other individuals being detained for participating in the free exchange of scholarship and ideas. The resolution also calls on the U.S. government to work with its allies throughout the Middle East, as well as with other governments and international organizations, to secure Esfandiari’s release.
Esfandiari, who is a resident of the state of Maryland and the Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, was arrested in Tehran on May 8th after being barred from leaving Iran. Esfandiari traveled to Iran in December to visit her ailing 93 year old mother.
“Dr. Esfandiari’s imprisonment shows a gross disregard for the rule of law and belies statements by Iranian government officials that Iran would like to improve relations with the United States,” said Representative Van Hollen. “We want to send a strong message to the Iran government that her release is a priority.”

The husband of a US-based academic jailed in Iran called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday to free his wife as a compassionate act akin to the April release of 15 British sailors and marines.

Shaul Bakhash, 70, a history professor at George Mason University, also appealed to European, Middle Eastern and Asian countries to pressure Iran to free his 67-year-old wife, Haleh Esfandiari, who was arrested by Iranian authorities on May 8.

“If the president of Iran can make what he calls an act of compassion in releasing the British sailors, he can show the same compassion towards one of his own countrywomen,” Bakhash said in a telephone interview.

For the Full text of this article, please click here

Professor Shaul Bakhash of George Mason Univeristy writes an opinion editorial in the Los Angeles Times explaining the details surrounding his wife’s imprisonment and his efforts to help free her.

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. 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.

Since her incarceration 17 days ago, Haleh has been allowed only one- or two-minute phone calls with her mother. She speaks as if a minder is present. No visits are allowed, no legal representation. With so little contact, I have every reason to assume the worst: that she is subject to blindfolding, solitary confinement and harsh, even brutal interrogation calculated to extract a false confession.

For a full text of the article as seen in the Los Angeles Times, please visit
My wife, a prisoner in Iran