Haleh Esfandiari: Discipline Aided Scholar in Iran Prison
[Editor's Note: Haleh Esfandiari is the wife of George Mason University historian Shaul Bakhash.]
Haleh Esfandiari, the Iranian-American academic held for four months in solitary confinement in the political wing of Iran’s infamous Evin prison, said in Washington on Monday that she was able to endure by sticking to a rigorous daily exercise regimen and blocking out anything that reminded her of home.
On the three occasions when the prison dinner was an Iranian dish called adas pollo — a mixture of rice, lentils and raisins that is the favorite of her two young granddaughters back in Washington — she said she refused to even look at it, for example.
“Once in prison I decided I was not going to fall apart,” said Ms. Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a research institute in the capital, noting that she now weighs about 80 pounds — down from about 100 pounds when she was first imprisoned. “To maintain my mental and physical well-being, I imposed a strict discipline on myself.”
Ms. Esfandiari, 67, looking vibrant in a dark suit, bright orange scarf and gold leaf brooch, spoke about her ordeal during an hourlong news conference at the Wilson Center and in a separate telephone interview with The New York Times....
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Haleh Esfandiari, the Iranian-American academic held for four months in solitary confinement in the political wing of Iran’s infamous Evin prison, said in Washington on Monday that she was able to endure by sticking to a rigorous daily exercise regimen and blocking out anything that reminded her of home.
On the three occasions when the prison dinner was an Iranian dish called adas pollo — a mixture of rice, lentils and raisins that is the favorite of her two young granddaughters back in Washington — she said she refused to even look at it, for example.
“Once in prison I decided I was not going to fall apart,” said Ms. Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a research institute in the capital, noting that she now weighs about 80 pounds — down from about 100 pounds when she was first imprisoned. “To maintain my mental and physical well-being, I imposed a strict discipline on myself.”
Ms. Esfandiari, 67, looking vibrant in a dark suit, bright orange scarf and gold leaf brooch, spoke about her ordeal during an hourlong news conference at the Wilson Center and in a separate telephone interview with The New York Times....