Dr. Haleh Esfandiari was the reason room 380 in College of Health and Human Services was crowded last Thursday. Students and faculty came to hear about the personal experience of her incarceration in Tehran, Iran’s Evin prison. Dr. Haleh Esfandiari is an Iranian-American who was jailed in Iran. He was called by Iranian intelligence, “a kingpin in trying to get rid of the current Iranian regime.”
She opened the discussion with details of her new book, “My Prison, My home.” Dr. Esfandiari described her book as an account of her “lengthy interrogation, incarceration, intimidation, sense of fear, and sense of being lost in Iran.”
Dr. Esfandiari continued, mentioning details of her stay while being incarcerated in Iran. “The tone of interrogation in prison is more threatening,” she said. While being interrogated she was told to face the wall when responding to questions. “For 105 days, I talked to the wall,” she said.
She also described the cell she was held in as “broken sink, two high windows, blanket in the corner, two fluorescent lights that were on 24 hours a day, and a copy of the Quran. The only way I knew what time it was, is when the sun didn’t shine through the windows, or the guards going to and from home.”
She talks about how she never tried to show weakness, and attempted not to cry in front of interrogators. “If I cried, it was very early in the morning, or in the shower.”
After a few months in prison, she was asked to be interviewed on videotape. She agreed so she could prove to her family, her work, and the world that she had nothing to hide.
Dr. Esfandiari still questions why she was accused of trying to oust the current regime. She believes it may be due to the fact that she is the director of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Middle East Program. She also credits Iran’s current issues with insecurity, as well as a negative worldview.
Dr. Esfandiari concluded by allowing guests to ask questions. Most of the questions focused on Iran’s current leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Questions ranged from details about current election protests, to women’s and human rights in Iran.
The small timeframe only allowed for a few questions, with the assistance of a bawdy guest. The guest shouted out at one point in opposition of one of Dr. Esfandiari’s responses in reference to her support that the current Iranian election was fraudulent. “How can you be sure?” shouted the guest.
In hindsight, it is good to know that Dr. Esfandiari is alive and doing well. She concluded in response to a question that she thinks she may never return to Iran. Regrettably so, Dr. Esfandiari believes that there is still hope for the future of Iran. She misses her country deeply, and hopes that movements in Iran will continue for the rights of women, and the rights of all.
