Wright: Boycott Threat Puts Pressure on Iran
Robin Wright at the Washington Post has a piece online today on the growing pressure among US academics to boycott conferences and intellectual contact with Iran as long as Dr. Haleh Esfandiari is detained by Tehran.
Wright quotes a statement from Noam Chomsky on Haleh’s imprisonment:
‘ “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,” he 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.” ‘
She also quotes my entry, “Haleh in Prison,” from Friday’s IC.
She notes that 16 women in Congress have spoken out jointly on this issue, including Hillary Clinton.
It is great to have this coverage in a major US newspaper. But I still haven’t been contacted by any organizations with capacity to do a demonstration in front of, e.g., the Iranian Embassy in London. Make it Friday, June 1, and I could help lead it.
Paris, Madrid, Rome and Tokyo would also be good places for a demonstration, and it is good if some prominent academics can take the lead.
Links:
Moroccan-American author Leila Lalami has spoken out on the issue.
Also Karen Tumulty at Time’s blog, where she notes that Sam Brownback has spoken out on Haleh’s imprisonment.
Amnesty International has a convenient form for sending protest emails to the Iranian government.
The Lehrer News Hour discussion of the imprisonment.