Canadian Academic Detained in Iran

A Canadian university professor has been jailed in Iran after conducting research on women in the country, according to a report in The Globe and Mail, which cites the professor’s niece.

Homa Hoodfar, an anthropologist and professor at Montreal’s Concordia University, was reportedly detained on Monday and is being held in Tehran’s Evin Prison. She was in Iran to visit family and do academic research. Her academic interests include feminism and the role of women in Middle Eastern societies.

“We are unclear as to what the charges are,” Hoodfar’s niece, Amanda Ghahremani, told the Canadian Press. “[Hoodfar] is not an activist and she has never been political. She has never engaged in anything that could even be remotely be construed as any form of sedition or political activity in any way.”

Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Dion, said he has met with a member of Hoodfar’s family and is working to help her.