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American Scholar Released from Iranian Jail

An Iranian-American scholar who had been jailed for months in Iran has been freed on bail.

Haleh Esfandiari is director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

In December, she was on the way to the Tehran airport after visiting her mother, when she was seized by masked men with knives. The government later confirmed it was detaining Esfandiari and questioning her.

It's unclear whether she'll be allowed to return to the United States.

Karim Sadjadpour, Iran scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a friend of Esfendiari, talks about the case with Melissa Block.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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