Episode 26 – Haleh Esfandiari – My Prison, My Home

This week’s guest is Dr. Haleh Esfandiari. She is the Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and has had a rich and varied career. In her native Iran, she was a journalist, served as deputy secretary general of the Women’s Organization of Iran, and was the deputy director of a cultural foundation where she was responsible for the activities of several museums and art and cultural centers. She taught Persian language at Oxford University and, prior to coming to the Wilson Center, from 1980 to 1994, she taught Persian language and contemporary Persian literature and courses on the women’s movement in Iran at Princeton University.