Free Haleh

Haleh Esfandiari, 67, directs the Middle East program at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. After traveling to her native Iran to visit her sick mother, she was ambushed and thrown into Iran's most notorious prison (well-known for its use of torture) because, as the Iranian government claims, she is a "danger to national security." The Iranian government has refused to release her despite demands from figures ranging from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). Reports have filtered out that she is in solitary confinement, losing weight and is not getting the medical care or medicines she needs. She hasn't even been able to talk to her attorney, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Shirin Ebadi, herself an Iranian citizen who was once thrown into the same prison for her human rights activism.

To sign letters and a petition for Haleh's release, click on the above banner or go to takeaction.amnestyusa.org.

In related news, you can sign a petition to punish the killers of Du'a Khalil Aswad, who stoned her to death in an "honor killing" for allegedly having a romance with a Muslim. Aswad belonged to a Yazidi (an ancient pre-Islamic religion) clan in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq, and her public killing was captured on cell phone video, posted on the Internet and seen by people all over the world.

Anywhere you look in the Middle East - or anywhere else in the world, for that matter - and see violence or aggressive posturing, human rights violations, underdevelopment, backwardness and repression, you will also see the local society abusing and oppressing its women. They go hand-in-hand. The real dishonor in Aswad's so-called "honor" killing is the viciously heinous behavior of her killers. There will be no peace or progress of any kind - political, diplomatic, economic, social, religious, etc. - in the Middle East unless and until every last one of its men learns to honor and respect its women.