Haleh Esfandiari, imprisoned in Tehran's Evin torture block

Since May 8, 2007, Haleh Esfandiari has been held in Section 209 of Tehran's prison for political prisoners. Esfandiari is a scholar, affiliated with the Wilson Center. The Center is not only not an arm of the United States or any government, it is remarkably hostile to the present administration. Esfandiari is herself a grandmother and was in Iran visiting her 93 year old mother. For the government of Iran to accuse her of "spying", in the absence of any motive, opportunity, benefit, or evidence, is not merely criminal. It is "proof" that there is No God, that these thugs in Tehran are not Believers, and any one who authorizes the interrogations of grandmothers is not a religious by any definition. These men are not motivated by spiritual values. Her interrogators could not possibly have any genuine "religious" beliefs.

I can but be reminded of the fact that Mata Hari was accused of "spying" by another group of thugs claiming to be pious. In France, when things were not going well on the war front, some religious fanatics went after Mata Hari, an independent woman who had introduced Middle Eastern "belly dancing" to the corsetted and bustled society of Paris. Ironically, with no evidence against her other than that she loved men and women, she was executed by firing squad as the World War began taking its pointless toll. There was never any evidence of espionage on her part, and few women in Europe were LESS conspicuous than this theatrical performer.

Now the "Ministry of Intelligence" in Iran goes after another independent woman. Apparently, war mongers find it convenient to go after UNARMED WOMEN. The Ayatollah claims to find some justification in the Quoran for doing the worst things to an unarmed grandmother? They have insured the immortality of this great martyr to truth, the scholar, the seeker of evidence and truth, who could have served as a great bridge of understanding between civilizations. Tney put her in a filthy prison.