academic boycott of Iran
[Yoshie, better work on Noam - evidently he hasn’t gotten the memo yet.]
Washington Post - May 20, 2007
Academics May Boycott Iran Over Scholar’s Detainment By Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writer
Momentum is building behind an academic boycott of Iran to pressure
the government to free imprisoned American scholar Haleh Esfandiari,
who was jailed in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison on May 8 after more
than four months under house arrest.
The Middle East Studies Association of North America, which has 2,700
members worldwide, has written to Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad warning that the detention of scholars has triggered
“grave concern” and that Esfandiari’s imprisonment has sent a
“chilling message to scholars throughout the world.” Esfandiari is
director of Middle East programs at the Smithsonian’s Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars.
“Harassment and detention of scholars is always cause for grave
concern, but in this case it should be noted that the scholar in
question is widely respected both for her knowledge and ability to
provide clear and dispassionate analysis,” the letter added. It also
charged that Iran’s action against the 67-year-old grandmother, who
was visiting Iran to help her ailing mother, 93, violates the
republic’s constitution because she has been denied legal counsel.
MIT professor Noam Chomsky also issued a statement yesterday calling
Esfandiari’s detention “deplorable” and warned that the action by
Iran’s intelligence ministry was “a gift” to American policymakers
trying to organize support for military action against Iran. “Now is
a time for diplomacy, negotiations, and relaxation of tensions, in
accordance with the will of the overwhelming majority of Americans
and Iranians, as recent polls reveal,” Chomsky said. “The intolerable
treatment of this highly respected scholar and human rights activist
severely undermines the efforts of those who are seeking peace,
justice and freedom in the region and the world.”
In his popular blog, University of Michigan Middle East expert Juan
Cole said that he canceled plans to attend a conference this summer
in Iran because of Tehran’s imprisonment of Esfandiari and called on
other academics to do the same. “Everyone should be outraged about
this story. Her arrest should be an issue for everyone who believes
in human rights, in academic freedom, and in women’s rights,” he
wrote. Cole also suggested that academics and others protest in front
of Iranian diplomatic missions.
Although the United States broke off diplomatic relations after the
1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, American academics have
been frequent visitors to conferences in Iran.
“Academics may now feel they are put at risk, but if you have a
fellow academic who is highly respected and is being held prisoner
for promoting the very contact that Iran has been seeking, that is
perfectly good grounds for not going to a conference there,” said
Gary Sick of Columbia University and a former member of the National
Security Council under presidents Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter and
Ronald Reagan.
Iranian prison authorities allowed Esfandiari a one-minute telephone
call to her mother yesterday, according to her husband, George Mason
University professor Shaul Bakhash. Esfandiari could say only that
she was waiting for clarification of her situation.
Iran’s judiciary said last week that she was being investigated for
“crimes against national security.”