N ITS TREATMENT of the Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari, Iran is violating basic precepts of human rights, rule of law, and academic free inquiry. After being subjected to months of grueling interrogation, Esfandiari, director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, was jailed May 8 in the brutal Evin Prison and, according to Iran’s state -run television, will face grave charges of “seeking to topple the ruling Islamic establishment.”
Fellow scholars know how preposterous those charges are and have acted in exemplary solidarity with Esfandiari. Their protests against her imprisonment signify more than a reflexive defense of academic freedom; they are rooted in a commitment to reasoned discourse, respect for cultural differences, and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
Her supporters understand that the conferences Esfandiari arranged at the Wilson Center, far from reflecting a US government plot to overthrow the regime in Iran, were intended both to encourage respect for human rights and women’s rights in Iran and to discourage Bush administration fantasies about violent regime change in Tehran.
A strong and lucid statement issued Monday by an international group of “scholars of Iran and the Middle East” decried the scapegoating of Esfandiari as “the latest distressing episode in an ongoing crackdown by the Islamic Republic against those who, directly or indirectly, strive to bolster the foundations of civil society and promote human rights in Iran. Over the past year-and-a-half, this onslaught has targeted prominent women’s rights activists, leaders of non-governmental organizations, student and teacher associations, and labor unions.”
The same statement acknowledges disputes among factions in Iran’s “ruling elite” but rightly insists that “the Islamic Republic of Iran -- like any other member of the United Nations -- should be held fully accountable for its actions.” The signers of this plea for Esfandiari’s release know that other innocent people who fell into the hands of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry have been tortured and killed in Evin Prison. They are warning that Iran’s government, and not any one faction, bears responsibility for what has happened and what may happen to Esfandiari.
At a recent roundtable discussion at Harvard, Iranian human rights activists lamented that the allocation of $75 million by the United States for the promotion of democracy in Iran has made Iranians working for free speech, women’s rights, or labor unions susceptible to charges of being in the pay of an administration plotting regime change in Tehran. The allegations against Esfandiari suggest she has been caught up in a deadly duel between paranoid ultras in Tehran and hubristic regime-changers in Washington.
