Imprisoned Iran-American scholar freed at last

Regular readers of Passport will know that we've been closely following the case of Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a contributor to FP. She was detained in Tehran in December and thrown into the notorious Evin Prison in May, where she's been languishing ever since. 

Finally, there's good news! Dr. Esfandiari was released today after her family paid bail of 3 million rials (about $333,000), using the deed of her 93-year-old mother's Tehran apartment. The head of the Wilson Center, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, said he was unsure about why she was released, but had recently received a note from Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in response to a letter appealing for Esfandiari's release. 

So far, the charges against Esfandiari are still pending, and it is unclear whether or not the Iranian government will allow her to return home to Maryland. But at least she is able to spend time with her ailing mother and is no longer in prison. Let's hope there's similar good news in the cases of Kian Tajbakhsh, Parnaz Azima, and Ali Shakeri, who have also been detained in Iran.