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Held in My Homeland

[Washington Post] Haleh Esfandiari - On May 8, I was arrested by agents of Iran's Intelligence Ministry on suspicion of working to destabilize the Islamic Republic. For the next 105 days, a cell in Ward 209 of Tehran's Evin Prison would be my "home." I had flown to Tehran last December to visit my 93-year-old mother. But in January the authorities prevented me from leaving. I underwent many weeks of intensive interrogation by intelligence ministry officials, centering on my activities as director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. The charge seemed ludicrous. I, a 67-year-old grandmother, was being accused of threatening the security of the most populous and powerful country in the Middle East because I had organized conferences in Washington on Iran and other states of the region. The Intelligence Ministry believes that the Bush administration hopes to encourage a "velvet" revolution in Iran, like the peaceful ones that occurred in Georgia and Ukraine. To achieve this end, it uses think tanks, foundations and universities to organize workshops for Iranian women, to invite Iranian opinion-makers and scholars to conferences and to offer them fellowships. In time, Iranian officials believe, the administration hopes to create a network of like-minded people in Iran who are intent on regime change. Iranian officials see an alert and vigilant Islamic Republic as successfully foiling this plan.
2007-09-19 01:00:00
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