Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) today released the following statement after news reports that the Iranian government has released Dr. Haleh Esfandiari on bail:

“I join Dr. Esfandiari’s friends and family in relief and joy at today’s news that, after more than 100 days of unjust imprisonment, she has been released by the Iranian government. This is an important first step, but I will not rest until Dr. Esfandiari is allowed to return to her family in Maryland”

“I remain concerned about the other Iranian-Americans who are being detained: Kian Tajbakhsh, Parnaz Azima, and Ali Shakeri. I hope this decision by the Iranian government to release Dr. Esfandiari is a sign of their impending releases as well.”

Kian has been held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for more than 100 days now, and has still not been allowed to see a lawyer.   Our only sight of him has been in the contrived “documentary” on Iranian television, for which he was made to read a coerced statement.

Mehrangiz Kar, Iranian human rights lawyer and a former prisoner in Evin herself, has written the following op-ed to mark the hundredth days of Haleh’s and Kian’s imprisonment:

Haleh Esfandiari has spent hundred days in solitude and may spend more. Kian Tajbakhsh has spent hundred days in solitude and may spend more. Nothing is known from the fate of Ali Shakeri. “Solitude” is a punishment that those who love Iran must endure as a historic fate. They say Haleh is just skin and bones. She looks as if her soul has left her body. Nothing is left from that active Haleh who drank a cup of coffee for breakfast, ate a bowl of yogurt for lunch and always performed her daily exsercises, never leaving her work. We pray that the news we receive are false. But how can we stay calm? Nobody knows what is happening to her. Her attorney is unaware of her condition just as we are. They do not allow Esfandiari to be visited by her attorney. Her old mother who lives near the Evin Prison is also unaware of her condition just as we are. Her mother, who can at any moment leave us is unable to see her lone daughter, who is now 67 years old. She has endured hundred painful days of solitude. She is originally Austrian, but after marrying Haleh’s father found Iran to be a heaven and never left, even during the revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. She is probably thinking to herself, why is she treated such in a land that she loves?

Kian Tajbakhsh has been seen after spending one hundred days in solitude. They say in order to prepare him to appear on the staged confessions show on television, he had to be grimed like movie actors so that he can read over their already-prepared statements of confessions. They wanted to convince the public that Tajbakhsh is in a decent condition.

All those who have experienced solitude of this sort know how it feels. They know Haleh’s and Kian’s solitude is like a gray cloud; its depressing; it is mixed with nightmare reeks of death – though it is not death! The solitude turns death into a “wish.” And where death is a wish, life is a nightmare. We must pray for those in solitude like Kian and Haleh. Is the hundred day of solitude that is imposed on Kian and Haleh a misunderstanding or is it a sign that some people are unable to separate their friends from their enemies out of their sheer ignorance? These two, whose days in solitude have surpassed one hundred are friends, not enemy. Have they remained friends after tolerating the heavy weight of solitude and loneliness? Iran’s security apparatus is an enemy-producing factory. They feed the factory with friends through different pipes and receive enemies from the other end. The factory’s production has been like this for many years.

Haleh’s and Kian’s solitude has reached one hundred days. But really, how long has been the Iranian people’s solitude? Let us together count our lonely days and nights and calculate how much hardship we have endured inside and outside the country in order to keep ourselves alive in this wasteland of solitude.

The solitude of Haleh and Kian, both of whom were friends to a moderate Islamic Republic, reached one hundred days. Calculate the number of days the Iranian people have been in solitude.

New York Senator and Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton released the following statement this week:

“This week marked the 100th day of detention for Iranian American scholars Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, head of the Middle East Progam at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and development consultant Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh.

They have been imprisoned in Tehran since May. Two other Iranian-Americans are also being unjustly targeted – journalist Parnaz Azima cannot leave the country and Ali Shakeri, founder and board member of the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, is being detained in a clear violation of human rights. These four individuals have sought to increase understanding between the Iranian people and the international community, and their continued detention is a blight upon the Iranian regime.

It is unconscionable that Dr. Esfandiari – a grandmother who was in Iran to visit her ailing mother – has been detained for more than three months on baseless charges, and that Dr. Tajbakhsh and Mr. Shakeri are also being detained without just cause. Dr. Tajbakhsh, who received his doctorate in urban planning from Columbia University and was a sociology professor at The New School for Social Research, had worked on various projects—including helping the Iranian people after a devastating earthquake—with the full knowledge of the Iranian government. In addition, Ms. Azima is being prevented from leaving the country, after coming to Iran to visit her elderly and ill mother. The four Iranian-Americans must be allowed without delay to return to their families and homes.

I call upon the Iranian government to release Dr. Esfandiari, Ms.Azima, Dr. Tajbakhsh, and Mr. Shakeri without delay, and I urge the Bush Administration to make their release a priority for our government. I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress to draw attention to the plight of these individuals, and ensure that they are released unharmed.”

Dermot Dix, an Irish friend of Kian’s, wrote this piece for the Dubliner Magazine:

My friend Kian and I sometimes joke about ‘I’ countries: he is from Iran, I am from Ireland, and the last two countries where we met are Italy and India. Kian was arrested in Tehran on May 11th and has been held in Evin prison since then.

The news of his arrest came as a shock. Kian lives for ideas and the arts, he has no interest in subverting governments. In 1999 he forsook an academic career (as an urban sociologist) in New York to return to Iran, the country he had left as a child in the 1960s.

He loved his new life in Tehran: serendipitous conversations in Persian, learning to play the tar, soaking up life on the streets and in the public parks. He met and married Bahar, now pregnant with their first child.

Kian is funny and engaging. “I have a question for you,” he’ll say, and off we go on another debate — about boarding schools (he spent 10 years in English boarding schools, one in an Irish boarding school), about Mughal India, about Persian versus Irish music, about anything and everything.

How he could possibly appear a threat to the Iranian revolution is beyond me.

One of the last emails I received from him had him waxing lyrical about the beauty of Via Margutta in Rome, where we both spent some time recently. I long for the chance to hear what he thinks of North Great George’s Street, the Celtic Tiger, uilleann pipes played live, the Irish rugby team—I wonder when I’ll hear what he has to say about my ‘I’ country.

Some of Kian’s friends and colleagues here in New York have joined us to make short video clips sharing their stories about Kian and their thoughts on his current situation. 

Nidhi Srinivas, Assistant Professor at the Milano School of Management and Urban Policy, speaks about Kian from the office they once shared, where some of Kian’s music and artwork still decorate the room:

Alex Schwartz, chair of Urban Policy Analysis and Management Program at Milano, speaks about Kian as a colleague and scholar:

Juliet Ucelli, an educator, social worker, and peace activist, talks about her long friendship with Kian:

If you have stories to share about Kian, please record them and send us the clip. You can also add them to YouTube, where these three videos can be found.

Below is some footage of last month’s vigil for the detainees at UN Plaza:

Pakistani journalist and author Ahmed Rashid, who is a friend of Kian’s, has written about his arrest in The Guardian.

Iran’s thought criminals

My friend, Kian Tajbakhsh, is in jail in Iran for … well, being an intellectual. He has not had access to a lawyer nor any visitors since being jailed for espionage and undermining the state. In short, if you live in Iran nowadays, intellectuals are the new terrorists. As in Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia, purveyors of ideas, information, and emotions are the enemy, especially if the people espousing such ideas happen to work for a foreign organisation.

Mr Tajbakhsh, an internationally respected scholar, social scientist, urban planner, and dual citizen of Iran and the United States, has languished in Tehran’s Evin Prison - notorious for its documented cases of torture and detainee abuse - since May 11. I was shocked last week to see him on Iranian TV, pale and wan, giving the kind of faked confession that would have made Soviet prosecutors blush.

Soft spoken, mild mannered, thoughtful, and with a wonderful sense of humor, Mr Tajbakhsh is portrayed by the Iranian government as a ravenous wolf ready to devour the regime. He was arrested along with other leading Iranian-American intellectuals, including Haleh Esfandiari of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars. Ms Esfandiari is a 67-year-old grandmother - just the right age to set about undermining Iran. Her lawyer, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, has been denied access to her. Meanwhile, journalist Parnaz Azima is not allowed to leave Iran.

As an intellectual, Mr Tajbakhsh cannot expect the world’s celebrities to beg Iran’s government for his release. Instead, he has received support from other intellectuals, such as the 3,400 members of the PEN American Centre, the writers’ organisation that fights for freedom of expression. The 14,000 members of the American Sociological Association have also asked for his release.

You would think Mr Tajbakhsh’s record in Iran would rule out an accusation of treason. He has been a consultant to several Iranian ministries on urban planning, and helped the government in major rebuilding projects after the devastating earthquake that destroyed the ancient city of Bam in 2003. In 2006, he completed a three-year study of local government in Iran - hardly the stuff of insurrection and regime change.

But he was also a consultant to the Soros Foundation, which, according to Ahmadinejad’s government, has worked against Islam. That idea is preposterous. In fact, the foundation’s many contributions to the Muslim world include help following catastrophic natural disasters in Pakistan and Indonesia, providing medical supplies to the Palestinians under blockade, and allowing scholars and intellectuals to learn from each other by translating and publishing works from English into local languages and vice versa.

What makes Mr Tajbakhsh’s incarceration look truly pathetic is that Iran boasts of one of the oldest civilisations in the world. Persians mingled easily with the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, conveying their skills, discoveries, and statecraft to the west. The image of the Persians portrayed in the recent film, 300, is simply false. Moreover, Muslim Iranians have always respected their pre-Islamic civilisation. Thus, the Islamic revolutionaries in 1979 made a point of preserving the Zoroastrian fire temples.

In its Muslim era, Iran has boasted of some of the greatest poets, writers, and scientists in the world. None of this would have been possible if Iran’s ancient Muslim rulers had not allowed academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas and expression - something that is sorely missing in today’s Islamic Republic. Other autocratic rulers in the Muslim world are learning from Iran’s example, cracking down hard on intellectuals, journalists, lawyers, women activists, or just about anyone who has ideas and wants to exchange them with others. For such Muslim rulers, intellectuals are the new global terrorists, bombarding their regimes with intellectualism. And my friend Kian Tajbakhsh - alone in his cell in Evin Prison wondering what he has done wrong - is the face of this new form of repression.

Journalist Nooshabeh Amiri and human rights lawyer Mehrangiz Kar have both written in Rooz Online about “confessions” in the cases of the Iranian-American detainees and others unjustly held in Evin Prison.  Amiri writes about the conditions under which false confessions are extracted:

Depriving a prisoner from sleep. Stealing the comfort of darkness from a prisoner through lights that never go off. The silence of the cells that never ends except for the sound of tape recorded wailing of other prisoners. The voice of a pleading woman. The cracking voice of a man who is broken. The voice of a child calling for help.

And then comes the long wait. Very long. During which there is no news, no communication. And then interrogations take place again. Sleep deprivations are imposed. The recorded wailings. Silence. And then the same recipe all over again.

Eventually the prisoner talks and writes: espionage, participation in the velvet revolution, connections to foreigners, sexual corruption, etc. Take a look at the confessions. Has anyone said anything other than these? [full article here]

Mehrangiz Kar, herself a former prisoner in Evin, provides a legal analysis:

A credible confession has certain characteristics. A self-incriminating confession in front of television cameras set up in a prison cell is neither credible nor legitimate. The confessions of Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh are at odds not only with internationally recognized principles of human rights, but also with principles laid out in the Islamic Sharia [body of Islamic law].

Article 1262 of Iran’s civil law, which was drafted about eighty years ago in accordance with Islamic principles, lays out the criteria for a “credible confession.” The law specifies that a confession is not credible whenever the agent’s will is not free, or the confession is extracted under duress and pressure.

Despite its other shortcomings, the Islamic penal code is adamant that a confessing agent must be mature, sane, able and free. Given the definition of terms like maturity, sanity, ability and freedom, how can the remarks of Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh be considered credible? [Full article here]

The broadcast of the television “documentary” containing footage of Kian and Haleh has drawn swift condemnation.  Haleh Esfandiari’s daughter Haleh Bakhsh published this piece in the Washington Post about the program. She writes, in part:

It was obvious from the words she used that much of what my mother said was scripted. Some of the phrases that she and two other prisoners — Tajbakhsh and a man arrested last year who has since been released — are shown saying echo statements that Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has issued to describe their cases. Her statements, to me, sounded wooden — unnatural and coerced. But did she say anything incriminating? Certainly not.

What Iran’s security authorities, in their infinite wisdom, are presenting to the world and to their domestic audience is a doctored “interview” in which dishonest cutting and splicing unconvincingly attempt to make the most ordinary statement appear to be part of a great “conspiracy,” a harbinger of massive subversion.

….When the television program ended, I felt contempt for my mother’s jailers and interrogators. But I was filled with admiration for my mother. In hugely difficult circumstances, she preserved her dignity, held her head high and did not lie. She did not falsely implicate others. It is her jailers, I thought, who have to work in the dark, behind the closed doors of prison interrogation rooms. It is they who hide their faces, who try to manipulate public opinion by controlling the media, smearing reputations and dishonestly splicing film.

My mother has nothing to be ashamed of. They do.

The Open Society Institute and the Wilson Center both made further statements in response to the broadcast.

OSI’s statement, which can be seen in full here, said:

The Open Society Institute is deeply concerned over Iran’s use of deliberately contrived television footage of Iranian-American detainees Kian Tajbakhsh and Haleh Esfandiari. OSI is saddened by this abuse of their dignity, and disturbed by this attempt to deceive the Iranian public and the world about their activities and their current situation.

Dr. Tajbakhsh and Dr. Esfandiari have been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison for more than two months without seeing a lawyer. Their appearance on Iranian television is clearly coerced. Any statements made under duress without access to legal counsel can be given no credence.

The Wilson Center’s statement begam:

The Woodrow Wilson Center remains emphatic that the recently broadcast video programs depicting alleged ‘confessions’ from Iranian-American detainees Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh are scripted, contrived, and completely without merit. In the video, both Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh are shown wearing civilian clothing, and in a domestic setting, when in reality both are being held captive in Tehran’s Evin prison, an institution notorious for its flagrant abuse of human rights.

The Center’s director Lee Hamilton also pointed out, “In the two segments Iranian TV produced as well as in the clips aired earlier advertising the two-part series, it is clear that statements were rehearsed again and again and that her comments were cobbled and spliced together. This is shameful. It cannot be considered a ‘confession’ by any stretch of the imagination.”

Human Rights Watch condemned Iran’s decision to broadcast the program. Joe Stork, HRW’s deputy Middle East director, said “Public ‘confessions’ of this kind are a shameful tactic used by oppressive governments around the world.”

Finally, a number of Iranian bloggers have responded to the “documentary” with disbelief and derision. This translated post by blogger Khashayar Kheirkhah said,

“[The detainees] were given such complex notes to read that I think many of the spectators did not make sense of it and the question for many was “what offense have these people committed?”….In conclusion, the first part of this useless television show was a horrible defeat for the Islamic Republic propaganda, or as they say in English, they shot themselves in the foot.”

On the Mideast Youth blog, Fariborz wrote,

“Most people don’t believe this TV show has something to say, only lies! We are familiar with this interrogation pattern activities in Iran that it works in following steps:
1. jailing innocent people
2. confining them
3. producing a framed or cobbled statement and confession

….
We condemn this totally false accusations and allegations against these people and we again ask the Iranian government to end this ordeal and let all detained dual-citizens return safely home.”

The “documentary” produced by Iranian authorities and containing coerced footage of the detainees aired on Wednesday and Thursday with the title “In the Name of Democracy.”  Out of respect for the dignity of Kian, Haleh, and others forced to appear in this footage, we will not be posting video clips from the program, although those who wish to watch it may find excerpts on YouTube and elsewhere online.

The propaganda film purports to show a connection between the activities of Kian, Haleh, and former Canadian-Iranian detainee Ramin Jahanbagloo (who was released last year after four months in Evin Prison and forced to film a false “confession), and supposed U.S. efforts to undermine governments in various countries including Iran.  Kian and Haleh both appear in everyday clothing and residential settings in an attempt to deceive viewers about their imprisonment.  Neither confesses to the charges against them–their statements involve explanations of the kind of work they were doing in Iran and abroad, such as organizing conferences.  These statements are then spliced together with footage of revolutions and political activity in other countries, while two commentators make false, laughable connections between Kian’s and Haleh’s work and these events.   Both Kian and Haleh appear to be speaking under coercion and following some sort of script imposed by their interrogators–Kian refers to notes in his lap, and the footage of Haleh appears to be spliced together from a long “interview” in which she repeats terminology similar to that in the Intelligence Ministry’s statements about the detainees.  There is no credibility whatsoever to the Iranian government’s claims that the program would amount to a “confession” or “proof” that Kian and Haleh are guilty of the trumped-up charges made against them.

Farideh Farhi of the University of Hawaii published this excellent analysis of the initial footage of Kian and Haleh, and the US media coverage of it, at Informed Comment Global Affairs.  She has given us permission to reprint it here:

Yesterday one of the channels the Iranian national television (IRTV) showed a trailer for an upcoming program to be shown on Wednesday and Thursday nights called “In the Name of Democracy.” In the trailer two Iranian-American scholars, Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh, are shown discussing things. The reason I cannot be more specific about the content is because the clips are so obviously doctored and shown out of context that the reference points are not at all clear. But the clear intent of the trailer is to relay the message that both Haleh and Kian are admitting that they were involved in efforts to create “cleavage between the government and people” (Kian’s words) and that their activities were merely “in the name of dialogue, in the name of empowering women, in the name of democracy” (Haleh’s words).

I am not surprised at what is being shown on IRTV. It is an old trick that used to be extensively practiced by the Intelligence Ministry in the pre-Khatami era that has now made a comeback during Ahmadinejad’s security-oriented environment. Both Haleh and Kian are filmed in a non-prison environment, probably in one of the many nicely set-up apartments that are owned by the Intelligence Ministry in the city of Tehran. My bet (and I have to acknowledge that my bet is an educated one because I spent a few days in the Evin prison last summer and then went through a series of lengthy “interviews” outside of prison for a couple of months) is that they don’t know that they are being filmed and in all likelihood they are not even talking to their interrogators! They are probably talking to someone, introduced to them as a professor or researcher in some Iranian university, about the Bush Administration’s Iran policy and its objectives.

I said that I am not surprised at what is being shown on IRTV but I am very surprised at the way the American newspapers are covering the trailer. (more…)

A number of Turkish academics have written a letter to the Iranian government on Kian’s behalf.  The text and signatories of the letter are below.  They join the many Turkish names on the Free Kian petition in calling for his immediate release.

We, the scholars from Turkey, are very concerned about the developments regarding freedom of expression in Iran. A country being known and admired as a center of scholarly and artistic production is increasingly being associated with repressing artists and scientists.

Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh’s detention in Evin Prison is an unfortunate example of this sad situation. Dr. Tajbakhsh is a worldwide respected Iranian scholar, who has been active in the service of his people. Accusing him of espionage against the state is an insult to not only Dr. Tajbakhsh but also all intellectuals who work to contribute to their communities in the region. His detention is a mistake.

We the undersigned call for the immediate release of our colleague Dr.
Tajbakhsh and ensure his safe return to his family.

1. Koray Caliskan, Bogazici University, Istanbul
2. Ahmet Ersoy, Bogazici University, Istanbul
3. Fikret Adaman, Bogazici University, Istanbul
4. Betul Tanbay, Bogazici University, Istanbul
5. Ali Kerem Saysel, Bogazici University, Istanbul
6. Murat Akan, Bogazici University, Istanbul
7. Elif Özmenek The New School University, New York
8. Gizem Açıkgöz, New York University, New York
9. Gülseren Mutlu, New York University, New York
10. Ayça Çubukçu, Columbia University, New York
11. Burak Özçetin, Middle East Technical University, Ankara
12. Vangelis Kechriotis, Bogazici University, Istanbul
13. Guldem Baykal Buyuksarac, Columbia University, New York
14. Zeynep Gambetti, Bogazici University, Istanbul
15. Ayfer Bartu Candan, Bogazici University, Istanbul
16. Seval Yildirim, Whittier Law School, Costa Mesa
17. Özlem Öz, Bogazici University, Istanbul
18. Ayşe Gül Altınay, Sabancı University, Istanbul

Today, Iranian state television showed clips of Kian and Haleh from a program called “In the Name of Democracy” that will be broadcast in full on Wednesday.  The program purports to reveal that they were involved in efforts to undermine the Iranian government.  The charges are ludicrous, and these statements are clearly coerced.  Kian and Haleh are shown in domestic settings and everyday clothing, a deception intended to mask the fact that both are still being held hostage in Evin Prison.

The Open Society Institute and the Woodrow Wilson Center swiftly condemned the broadcast.  The OSI statement reads:

The Open Society Institute is disheartened by the Iranian government’s decision to stage television footage of coerced statements made by Iranian-American detainees Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh and Dr. Haleh Esfandiari.

Any charges against these renowned scholars are wholly without merit.

That Dr. Tajbakhsh and Dr. Esfandiari appear dressed in civilian attire in a residential setting is a deliberate attempt to deceive the Iranian and world public by disguising the fact that they are being held in an Iranian prison infamous for human rights violations.

Statements obtained through interrogations conducted unilaterally under the control of Dr. Tajbakhsh’s captors and without access to legal counsel can be given no credence.

In a press release, the Wilson Center’s director denounced the program:

“Haleh is in her 71st day of solitary confinement in Evin Prison. She has seen no one from outside the prison during this time: not her mother, not her family, not her lawyer, and not the ICRC or any independent international body. Any statements she may make without having had access to her lawyer would be coerced and have no legitimacy or standing,” said Lee H. Hamilton, president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “This reprehensible pattern of activity by interrogators in Iran has occurred before: jailing innocent people, confining them, and then producing a framed or cobbled statement or confession. This is not a fair judicial process at work.”

For more information about the footage aired on Iranian television, see this article from the Washington Post.

Imperial College, London, where Kian recieved his undergraduate degree, has released this statement of support:

Respected academic Dr Kian Tajbakhsh, an Imperial College alumnus, was arrested in Iran in May 2007 and has been held without charge ever since. Imperial joins the international community in calling on the Iranian government to allow Dr Tajbakhsh legal representation and to provide evidence of the accusations against him.

Dr Tajbakhsh graduated with a BSc (Eng) in civil engineering from Imperial in 1983, and went on to complete an MSc in urban planning at University College London. He has built a reputation as a leading expert in local government reform, urban planning and social policy, consulting for Iranian government organisations and international non-governmental organisations such as the World Bank and the Netherlands Association of Municipalities. He holds dual citizenship of the United States and Iran, and has taught at universities in both countries.

The Iranian judiciary spokesman claimed yesterday that “new evidence” has been discovered and that Iranian authorities are continuing the investigations of Kian and Haleh Esfandiari.  The Open Society Insitute and the Wilson Center have both issued statements rejecting Iran’s allegations and calling for the immediate release of the detainees. 

The Open Society Institute’s statement said in part:

The Open Society Institute is dismayed by the Iranian government’s announcement of new allegations against Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh, an internationally respected scholar and American citizen who has been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison since May 11.

In the two months since his arrest, the Iranian authorities have offered nothing to substantiate any allegations of wrongdoing by Dr. Tajbakhsh. These vague allusions to new evidence in the case against him are equally unfounded.

The Wilson Center press release:

rejected as totally without merit the suggestion that Iran has discovered new evidence that Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Center’s Middle East Program, acted against Iran’s national security.

Esfandiari was arrested by the Iranian government on May 8, and has been held in solitary confinement in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for over two months. She continues to be denied access to her family, her lawyers, the Swiss government, and international organizations like the Red Cross.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has sent a letter to the Iranian ambassador in Islamabad, calling for Kian’s release.  Kian has participated in a number of HRCP meetings and events.  The letter reads:

We are writing to express our gravest concern over the imprisonment of Iranian scholar Dr Kian Tajbakhsh, along with several others in Tehran on May 11th.

Dr. Tajbakhsh has been charged with bidding to undermine the Iranian State.

We would like to add our voice to the international calls being made for the immediate release of Dr. Tajbakhsh. HRCP has hosted Dr. Tajbakhsh at meetings and discussions here in Lahore, and we know him as a patriot who would never attempt to damage the Iranian State. Indeed, as a leading academic, he is known to many people here as a man committed to defending the culture and heritage of the region.

On both humanitarian and human grounds, HRCP urges the release of Dr. Tajbakhsh, whose wife is expecting their first baby. We are confident any investigation against him can be carried out by questioning him outside prison walls.

Yours sincerely,

Asma Jahangir
Chairperson

The president of the Associatation for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS), an international scholarly organization, has written the following letter to President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to request Kian’s release:

Over a month and a half has passed since the detention of Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh, a distinguished member of this Association, and nothing has been done to end his imprisonment and free him, despite worldwide protests from renowned academics and international scholarly and cultural associations.

Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh is a well-known authority in development and urban planning whose international reputation in the field has been attested by the Research Committee on Urban and Regional Development of the International Sociological Association in its letter of protest dated 5 June, 2007. He has been a member of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies for a number of years, and organized the session on “Urban Sociology in Iran” at our Second Biennial Convention in Yerevan, Armenia, in April 2004. His important article, “Civil Society within the State? Production of Knowledge in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” was published in the last issue of our journal, Studies on Persianate Societies, 3 (2005/1384), pp. 119-137, and he was scheduled to present his paper on “Understanding the Institutions of Public Space in Contemporary Iran” at our Third Biennial Convention in Tblisi, Georgia, on June 10, 2007, but was unable to join us because of the inexcusable action of the Iranian government authorities in detaining him in breach of human rights conventions.

Considering that Your Excellency holds a doctorate in traffic and urban studies—a field in applied social sciences close to Dr. Tajbakhsh’s specialization—it may be redundant to underline the close link between the theoretical and practical aspects of these sciences and hence the importance of expert consultation in planning and policy. Nevertheless, given the nature of applied social sciences, I must point out that what the judiciary authorities have given the media as evidence of spying and endangering the national security by Dr. Tajbakhsh is all entirely in conformity with internationally accepted professional standards, falls within routine scientific consultation in applied social sciences, and is vitally necessary for the progress of policy-oriented research. The inappropriate political logic used by the judiciary authorities to justify this illegal detention and violation of human rights will jeopardize the future of policy oriented applied social scientific research in Iran. (more…)

Senators Hillary Clinton (D-New York) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) both issued statements calling for the release of the Iranian-American detainees and supporting the vigil at the UN.

Senator Clinton’s statement (full text here):

“I am saddened and dismayed by the continued detention of Dr. Haleh Esfandiari and Parnaz Azima, and the recent arrests of fellow Iranian-Americans Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh and Ali Shakeri….It is imperative that these Iranian-Americans be able to return unharmed to their families and homes, where they can continue to carry out their work of promoting international understanding. I call upon the United Nations to work with international partners and its member states to secure their release, and I pledge to do all I can with my partners in Congress to ensure that no harm comes to these individuals.”

Senator Mikulski’s statement (full text here):

“I wish I could be with you today during today’s important vigil at the United Nations Plaza. I want to thank Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Vital Voices and others for bringing us together – know that I stand with you as you fight for the freedom of the four Iranian-Americans being detained by the Iranian Government. Our hearts go out to Haleh Esfandiari, Kian Tajbakhsh, Parnaz Azima, and Ali Shakeri – and our prayers are with them and their families at this difficult time. All four have been unjustly targeted by Iran’s government.”

Thank you to all those who turned out for yesterday’s vigil at the United Nations.  More than a hundred people came to demonstrate for the release of Kian, Haleh, Ali, and Parnaz.  Photos will be up soon, but here is an article about the vigil from Voice of America (follow the link for an audio recording).

Human Rights Groups Hold Vigil for Detained Iranian-Americans

In New York Wednesday, Amnesty International and other human rights groups sponsored a vigil calling for the immediate release of detained Iranian-Americans by Tehran. In May, the government of Iran arrested four Iranian-Americans on accusations of harming national security. VOA’s Sean Maroney reports from the vigil.

More than a hundred protesters rallied in the humid mid-day heat outside the United Nations, chanting for the release of prominent U.S. scholar Haleh Esfandiari from the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran.

Esfandiari’s husband, Shaul Bakhash, was among the protesters.
“We know that interrogations at Evin Prison are not nice nor gentle. She needs medication. She needs medical attention. I think it’s unconscionable that the authorities in Evin Prison keep her not only in prison but don’t allow family visits or legal representation,” he said.

Last month, the government of Iran arrested the 67-year-old Esfandiari, as well as three other Iranian-Americans, including scholar Kian Tajbakhsh, journalist Parnaz Azima and activist Ali Shakeri. Shakeri is now out of prison on bail but is not allowed to leave Iran.

(more…)

Siddharth Varadarajan, a journalist and Deputy Editor of The Hindu, is a former classmate and friend of Kian’s and a signatory to the letter by Indian intellectuals on his behalf.  In this post on his blog, he writes about his assocation with Kian and the Indian campaign for Kian’s release. For the text of the letter and its list of signatories, see below:

(more…)

Below are excerpts from some recent opinion pieces on Kian and the other Iranian-American detainees.  Follow the links to read the full articles.

“Our Family Hostage Crisis“, by Dr. Shaul Bakhash, New York Times:

IRAN’S judiciary says it expects to announce a decision this week or next in the case of my wife, Haleh Esfandiari, and two other Iranian-Americans, Kian Tajbakhsh and Ali Shakeri, who have been held in solitary confinement at Tehran’s Evin prison since early May. The fate of these detainees could be resolved by Iran’s government in a number of ways. Only one would be in the best interests of the Islamic Republic: the detainees should be freed and all charges dropped.

“Deafening Silence“, by Pamela Kilpadi, Daily Times (Pakistan):

The United States and Iran have not engaged in serious diplomatic dialogue since 1979. Officials on both sides tend to fill the communications gap by orchestrating headline events. Recently, Iran has detained American Iranian scholars dedicated to promoting dialogue and mutual understanding. Social scientist and urban planner Kian Tajbakhsh, one of the dual nationals currently detained at Evin Prison, is a close colleague and friend. Kian and I began working together over three years ago, when the political situation in Iran was much different from what it is today.

“Iran: Blowback,  Detainee-Style,” by Karen Greenberg, Asia Times:

The new American prisoners in Iran belong, in part, to a broader diplomatic game of chicken now raging between the two governments….The four are apparently behind bars at Tehran’s Evin Prison, notorious for its special wing for political prisoners and, among human-rights activists, for being the location of the lethal beating of a Canadian-Iranian journalist in 2003. Evin and other Iranian prisons are cited by Human Rights Watch for frequent torture and mistreatment of arrested Iranian dissidents.

A group of Kian’s colleagues in the Urban Planning & Community Development field have sent this letter to the Iranian authorities.  Click on “more” for the list of signatories.

We are urban and regional planners and housing and community development practitioners. We are deeply concerned about the arrest and detention of Kian Tajbakhsh and the charges against him. We know Kian Tajbakhsh’s work and reputation as a scholar, professor and consultant to governments, organizations and international agencies. His teaching, writings and publications demonstrate a commitment to excellence and integrity, as does his approach to addressing urban issues. We appeal to you to drop the charges and immediately release him from detention.

(more…)

Amnesty International, the American Islamic Congress, Human Rights Watch, the National Iranian–American Council, the Near Eastern Studies Department at Princeton University, and Vital Voices Global Partnership have organized a vigil to support Haleh, Kian and the other detained Iranian–Americans. The event begins at noon on Wednesday, June 27th at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza across from the United Nations Plaza in New York City. Please see the attached flier for details.