Haleh Esfandiari: There and Back Again

Dear Haleh,

Glad to hear that you are back on U.S. soil. I know that it might be inaccurate to say you are home again, because home to you includes that space where your 93-year-old mother resides, and that is Iran. But that home is not a safe place. Not safe for you and perhaps not safe for very many women. Certainly it is not safe for women who think and then speak, even if in a velvet whisper.

I had written to you at the time of your imprisonment. Now, I am glad your ordeal is over. I do appreciate the time line that Woodrow Wilson Center put together tracking your ordeal.

The Washington Post gave a good account of your recent release, I thought.

Bless you. And sleep well tonight.

Betsy

Free Dr. Haleh Esfandiari

Dear Dr. Esfandiari,

Please come home to us. But, oh. . oh. . they won't let you. I have signed the petition asking them to free you, but still they won't let you come home.

Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and a dual Iranian-American national, was arrested in Tehran on May 8 and incarcerated in the Evin Prison.

I worry about you and other Middle Eastern artists and scholars who stand for free speech and well, reason, in general. See post by Laila Lalami, May 15, 2007, On Interpretations.

Our prayers are with you.

Betsy DeGeorge