SB: It’s almost useless to speculate about the Iranian government’s intentions, or, more specifically, about the intentions of the Ministry of Intelligence. The operations of the ministry are opaque; the line of questioning and interrogations to which Haleh was subjected suggests that they haven’t the least idea what an organization like the Wilson Center does, and that they made assumptions both about the Wilson Center and my wife not after they had conducted an investigation, but before.

FP: And how do you think the U.S. government is handling the situation in return?

SB: Because the U.S. doesn’t have any direct relations with Iran, it really has to work through its allies and friends among governments that do have relations with Iran. It’s doing its best to try and get Haleh released through these channels.

On the other hand, misguided U.S. policies in the past—loose talk about regime change in Iran or the allocation of funds to support Iranian dissidents and democracy advocates—have merely fed the paranoia of the Iranian regime about American intentions. I’m sorry to say that part of the problem that Haleh and other Iranian-Americans face in Iran today stems, in part, anyway, from these misguided policies. Obviously the allocation [by the U.S. State Department in 2006] of $60 to $70 million for democracy promotion of various sorts in Iran is an issue about which the Iranian government is very sensitive and very anxious. And some of the detainees have been accused, quite wrongly, of receiving that money.

FP: What do you think is the best solution to this dilemma?

SB: I think that the fairest resolution, both for Haleh and in the best interests of the Iranian government, is that Haleh should be released unconditionally and all charges dropped. It’s ironic that my wife should be charged with doing harm to the Islamic Republic when officials of the government of Iran have done enormous harm to Iran’s international standing and earned Iran universal condemnation by this arrest and incarceration. People can help by signing their names to the Free Haleh Web site at www.freehaleh.org. We are also planning a vigil in front of the United Nations in New York at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on June 27 from noon to 1 p.m. The more people who can show up for that vigil, the stronger the protest against her continuing incarceration will be.

Shaul Bakhash is Haleh Esfandiari’s husband and professor of history at George Mason University.

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