Haleh and Shaul Esfandiari

Tensions between nations lose their quality of abstraction when an individual's fate is caught up in them. This was a central fact of the harrowing ordeal Haleh Esfandiari underwent in her imprisonment by the Iranian government. Despite a scholarly dedication to improved communication between Iran and the U.S., she was treated as a threat to the Iranian state. The ordeal was not only a political incident and a personal challenge, it was a profound burden for her family. Here Haleh Esfandiari and her husband Shaul Bakash explore the personal costs of what became a major international case.