Haleh Esfandiari (Persian: هاله اسفندیاری) (born March 3, 1940) is an Iranian-American academic and former Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
[3] Esfandiari is married to Shaul Bakhash, a Jewish Iranian-American professor of history and Persian studies at George Mason University.
[14] On January 18, 2007, an interrogator and three other men (one holding a video camera) broke into her mother's apartment and entered Esfandiari's bedroom while she was taking an afternoon nap; they then took her laptop computer and other items.
[19] During her detention at Evin Prison, Esfandiari was allowed to make one- or two-minute telephone calls to her mother most evenings, but was not permitted to have contact with her other family members.
[20] On May 15, 2007, Iranian Judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi confirmed that Esfandiari was being investigated for crimes against national security and that her case was being handled by the Intelligence Ministry.
[21] On May 29, 2007, one day after a rare high-level meeting between Iranian and U.S. officials, Iran announced that its judiciary had brought charges of "endangering national security through propaganda against the system and espionage for foreigners" against Esfandiari.
[24] On May 11, 2007, U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and three congresspeople, (Senators) Barbara Mikulski, Benjamin L. Cardin, and Rep. Chris Van Hollen called for Esfandiari's release.
[25] At that time two campaigns demanding the release of Esfandiari with petitions were initiated by the American Islamic Congress[26] and the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East.
[30] Two days later, it was announced that the Middle East Studies Association of North America had written to Ahmadinejad expressing concern over Iran's detention of Esfandiari and other scholars.
[31] Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Noam Chomsky issued a statement deploring Esfandiari's detention and calling it "a gift" to U.S. officials considering a future attack on Iran.
[31] Juan Cole, a professor at the University of Michigan and past president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America, stated that he would boycott a conference in Iran which he had planned on attending in summer 2007, and called on other scholars to do the same.
Representatives Chris Van Hollen, Tom Lantos, Elijah E. Cummings, Wayne T. Gilchrest, and Gary Ackerman introduced a resolution, H. RES.
[32] On July 16, 2007, footage of Esfandiari appeared for the first time on a program entitled In the Name of Democracy, aired on the Iranian state television channel IRIB.