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Iranian-American academic jailed in Tehran: report

NEW YORK (AFP) – Haleh Esfandiari, an Iranian-American academic well-known in Washington where she leads a Middle East studies program, was jailed in Tehran after being barred from leaving the country four months ago, The New York Times reported.
 
Esfandiari, who led the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, "had endured repeated interrogations since December about her work there and was taken to Evin prison yesterday, where she was allowed one call to inform relatives that she had been jailed," The Times reported citing her employer.

"Whatever they think my wife did seems to be in their imagination; she hasn’t done anything wrong," Shaul Bakhash, her husband and a well-known Iran expert, told the paper. "I hope they realize that they made this mistake and let her return to her family," he was quoted as saying.

Though she left Iran at the time of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Esfandiari returned to her home country to visit her ailing mother, her husband said.