Canadian academic Homa Hoodfar indicted on unknown charges in Iran
A Canadian-Iranian anthropologist being held in Iran's Evin prison has now been indicted. Homa Hoodfar was arrested by the counter-intelligence unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards in March and has been detained since.
The charges laid against the 65-year-old academic on Monday are unknown — keeping with the secrecy and confusion that has shrouded her detainment from the onset.
Now it seems they're really serious, and it's not the mistake we thought it might have been.-Amanda Ghahremani, on the recent indictment of her aunt Homa Hoodfar
With hardliners who maintain authority over judiciary and intelligence services losing political control in Iran, it is suspected Hoodfar is being used as leverage to stop the Rouhani government from embracing more liberal policies.
The goal is to send a message to Iranian civil society activists [ . . . ] "if we can do this to dual citizens, we can easily to it to you. Scale back your activism."- Nader Hashemi, on the arrest of Canadian-Iranian Homa Hoodfar
Iran may also intend to exchange Hoodfar for an Iranian banker who currently resides in Canada and is wanted for trial in his home country.
On The Current, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver explains the nuances of this political arrest, and the difficulties for going forward with the closure of the Canadian embassy in 2012.
- Amanda Ghahremani, Hoodfar's niece
- Nader Hashemi, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver
This segment was produced by The Current's Idella Sturino and Ines Colabrese