Iranian-American academic Esfandiari was in Tehran visiting her elderly mother for Christmas when she was robbed at gunpoint on the way to the airport. Her tickets and both her passports were stolen.
What she initially thought was a common, “ordinary” attack was actually part of a campaign to keep her in the country, as she found out when she applied for new papers. Following weeks of harassment and interrogations, she was imprisoned for 105 days, accused of partaking in a US conspiracy for regime change in Iran through her work at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington.
Her harrowing prison memoir depicts the endless questioning her gaolers submit her to in the hope of extracting a confession. Esfandiari’s dual nationality, along with her expertise, places her in a unique position to put in context today’s situation in Iran.