Human Interests
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At Christmas time in 2006, Haleh Esfandiari was visiting her mother in Tehran when she was robbed, detained, and finally arrested on charges of plotting against Iranian national security. The then-67-year old journalist and scholar (she is the director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.) spent four months in solitary confinement at the notorious Evin Prison before a tremendous international outcry spurred her release. Esfandiari’s keenly written account of her experience, My Prison, My Home: One Woman’s Story of Captivity in Iran (Ecco) is both an affecting study of personal dignity—under constant threat of a show trial, Esfandiari had no way of knowing if she would ever be released—and a window onto President Ahmadinejad’s distorted world view. Via E-mail, Vogue’s Megan O’Grady interviewed Esfandiari, who holds both American and Iranian citizenship, to find out how the experience continues to shape her, and why women are crucial to shaping a future Iran. |