Dr. Haleh Esfandiari was finally released from the Evin Prison in Tehran on August 21. After visiting her mother in January, she was robbed of her belongings and US and Iranian passports before arriving at the airport. The Iranian government consequently detained her on the basis that she was responsible for starting something of a “soft revolution” among Iranians to instigate reform in the government.
She is the director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Institute in Washington and was one of the first female journalists in Iran ever. Apparently Ahmadinejad believes that promoting understanding and delivering information among the masses is a bad thing – or what he calls “anti-government”. Hold on a second. Didn’t the Communists suppress ideas and intellectuals when they were in power? You would think people would have learned from history’s mistakes already. It’s called world history class, guys.