The International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, a leading international scholarly journal for which Kian serves as a corresponding editor, has issued this letter on his behalf:

Dear Sirs,
We understand that agents of the Iranian Ministry of Information arrested Dr Kian Tajbakhsh at his home in Tehran on 11th May, that he is being detained without access to legal counsel in Tehran’s Evin prison.

As colleagues of Dr. Tajbakhsh from across the world, we call for his immediate and unconditional release.

Dr Tajbakhsh is a corresponding editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, a leading international journal in the study of cities and regions worldwide. Dr Tajbakhsh was invited to become a corresponding editor in recognition of his scholarship, international reputation and prominence within urban studies in Iran today. Dr Tajbakhsh is the author of The Promise of the City: Space, Identity and Politics in Contemporary Social Thought (University of California Press, 2001) as well as a volume in Persian, Social Capital: Trust, Democracy and Development (published in Iran in 2005). He taught at the New School in New York before returning to Iran. He has a well deserved reputation for reasoned and eloquent analysis.

Dr Tajbakhsh has played an important role on our journal, advising us on the quality of submissions from Iran and the ‘Middle East’, and assisting Iranian scholars to bring their research to the attention of the international community of scholars. In 2005, he co-edited a symposium in the journal on globalization and the city. This symposium has attracted considerable interest and attention world-wide. He plays important roles linking Iran to international scholarship in other respects also – including through the World Bank, the Social Science Research Council in the USA (for whom he served as a Steering Committee Member on their Middle East and North Africa Program).

Yours sincerely,

Jeremy Seekings
Co-editor, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

On behalf of the editors, Editorial Board, former editors and Corresponding Editors of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research:
Alan Harding (UK, co-editor)
Roger Keil (Germany/Canada, co-editor)
Jeremy Seekings (UK/South Africa/USA, co-editor)
Terry McBride (UK, managing editor)
AbdouMaliq Simone (USA, debates and development editor)
Talja Blokland (Netherlands, review editor)
Julie-Anne Boudreau (Belgium/Canada)
Neil Brenner (USA)
Maria Kaika (Greece/UK)
Takashi Machimura (Japan)
Marcus de Melo (Brazil)
Harvey Molotch (USA)
Simon Parker (UK)
Smriti Srinivas (India/USA)
Min Zhou (China/USA)
Judit Bodnar (Hungary)
Priscilla Connolly (Mexico)
Susan Fainstein (USA)
Marisol Garcia (Spain)
Michael Harloe (UK)
Dominique Joye (Switzerland)
Patrick Le Gales (France)
Margit Mayer (Germany)
Linda McDowell (UK)
Enzo Mingione (Italy)
Suhata Patel (India)
Chris Pickvance (UK)
Edmond Preteceille (France)
Tarık Şengül (Turkey)
Licia Valladares (Brazil/France)
John Walton (USA)