Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/iranian-american-scholar-sent-to-tehran-prison Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Iranian-American Haleh Esfandiari of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has been held in Iran since a trip there in December and was recently moved to a prison in Tehran. Analysts discuss her jailing and what it indicates about Iran's regime. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: A scholar in an Iran jail. Margaret Warner has that story. MARGARET WARNER: Haleh Esfandiari is a prominent Iranian-American scholar whose private visit to Iran has turned into a nightmare.The 67-year-old director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington went to Tehran last December to visit her ailing 93-year-old mother. On December 30th, en route to the airport to return home, her taxi was stopped by three masked men wielding knives. They confiscated both her Iranian and U.S. passports.Esfandiari returned to a family residence in Tehran. And for the next six weeks, authorities brought her in repeatedly to interrogate her about Wilson Center activities.Then, on Tuesday, she was arrested and jailed in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, run by Iran's intelligence services. No charges have been announced.Esfandiari is married to Shaul Bakhash, a Middle East historian at George Mason University in Virginia. He told the Los Angeles Times today, "It's all very frightening."For more, we're joined by former Congressman Lee Hamilton, president of the Wilson Center, and Karim Sadjadpour, associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He's a dual Iranian and U.S. citizen.Welcome to you both.Lee Hamilton, what is the latest on her condition and the circumstances of her confinement? LEE HAMILTON, President, The Wilson Center: The latest word we have is that her mother tried to visit her on two occasions at the prison. She was turned away. Then she went a third time, and she was able to talk with her daughter, Haleh, but not see her.The second time that she talked to her daughter, she said that Haleh's voice seemed a little stronger. We're mildly encouraged by that. But we are, of course, deeply distressed by her detention.