Two years ago, Dr. Haleh Esfandiari lived in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. When she wasn’t being subjected to daily six- to eight- hour interrogations by Iranian intelligence forces, she was confined to her cell with only a blanket, a Koran and her thoughts. On Thursday night, Dr. Esfandiari, 69, stood before a packed house in Davidson College’s 900 Room and spoke about her experience with poise, humor, insight and optimism for the future of her home country.
Dr. Esfandiari is director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Her visit to Davidson was made possible by sophomore Anna Van Hollen, who interned at the Woodrow Wilson center last summer. Dr. Esfandiari is also acquainted with Davidson history professor Jonathan Berkey, who received both his master’s and PhD degrees at Princeton during her time as a professor in Princeton’s Near Eastern Studies department.
Dr. Esfandiari was born in Iran but moved to the U.S. during the Islamic Revolution of the 1970s. Her history as a women’s rights activist and distinguished scholar earned her acclaim in the U.S., but also was key in her detention in Iran.
Her struggle began in December 2006, when she was in Iran to visit her then 93-year-old mother. After being robbed of her passport, Dr. Esfandiari was questioned by Iranian intelligence forces.
The questioning was far from routine, however, and Dr. Esfandiari eventually learned that the robbery was in fact staged by the Iranian government.
She ultimately spent 105 days in prison and then was interrogated for 4 months after that.
Since Dr. Esfandiari holds both Iranian and American passports, the Iranian government believed she was helping to carry out a soft revolution in Iran. Paranoid over the “U.S. military being embedded in the Middle East,” the Iranian government “had convinced themselves that the U.S. would like to promote the idea of regime change in Iran by using scholars and institutions like the Wilson Center to implement a velvet revolution” Dr. Esfandiari said. “By catching me, the Iranians were convinced they had caught the big fish.”
In the Iranian regime’s mind, Dr. Esfandiari’s visits to her mother were a guise to inspire a non-violent revolution in Iran.
Dr. Esfandiari said her interaction with Iranian intelligence agents started off in an invasive but comical fashion. Agents raided her home, coming across what they were sure were letters written with invisible ink on color coded paper. The “letters” turned out to be wrapping paper. In another incident, Iranian intelligence thought her Skype phone was a secret telecommunications device.
“So that is how you send codes back to the U.S.!” the intelligence agents exclaimed, Dr. Esfandiari said.
Dr. Esfandiari’s situation became dire when she was sent to Evin Prison, where prisoners have been known to be tortured or killed or to disappear altogether. Her already diminutive 105-pound frame quickly shrunk to 85 pounds, yet she was given only a blanket to stay warm at night. Her interrogations grew “much harsher, and they threatened to keep me for as long as it takes,” Dr. Esfandiari told the Davidson crowd. Little did she know, an international campaign for her release had begun outside of Evin’s walls.
One day, a prison guard asked Dr. Esfandiari if she knew then Sen. Barack Obama. Dr. Esfandiari denied being well acquainted with him, to which the guard responded, “Then why did he speak about you?” The guard continued that Hillary Clinton had spoken about her as well, but only because she was a “female feminist, like you,” said Dr. Esfandiari. “Otherwise, you are completely forgotten,” added the guard.
In August 2007, she was released after pressure by many individuals and organizations.
Dr. Esfandiari’s detention tainted her love of her homeland, “but my love for Iran surpasses these [bitter] feelings,” she said.
She said she hopes to return to Iran one day, and is optimistic about its future. “The younger generation is not going to put up with [injustice in Iran] much longer,” she said.
Dr. Esfandiari praised the strength and tenacity of Iran’s women. “Iranian women are amazing; they’re fighters,” she said. She said women in Iran have won new rights, including a raising of the legal marriage age and women’s right to divorce.
As for the Obama administration’s struggle to balance engaging Iran while not lending credibility to the President Ahmadinejad, which journalist Robin Wright discussed on campus two weeks ago, Dr. Esfandiari believes the administration has treated this dilemma “brilliantly.”
“The Obama administration did not condemn the elections, but critiqued the human rights situation in Iran and will continue to do so,” she said.
Dr. Esfandiari ended by stressing the importance of engagement with Iran. She was detained during the Bush administration, when the U.S. had no relations with Iran. “If we had had relations with Iran [in 2006], then none of this would’ve happened to me,” she said.
Dr. Esfandiari’s detention was not all for naught, however, and it taught her a powerful lesson. “I learned to value and cherish freedom and the rule of law. It is precious that we live in a country that respects the rule of law and does not depend on the whims of certain people,” she said.
She hopes that one day, the citizens of Iran will be able to say the same thing.
