The Iranian intellectual Ramin Jahanbegloo, who has been held in the Iranian Evin prison since April of 2006, was released on bail on August 30. Upon leaving jail he stopped by a Iranian news agency and granted an interview in which he discussed the reasons for his imprisonment (duped by the US into aiding a "Velvet Revolution") and his near-future plans: he'll return to India to complete his studies and avoid political discourse. How a reformer and student of democracy is going to stay away from politics is difficult to discern.

What's the price of his freedom?

...it seems that he was promised freedom and a passport if he gave an interview to "an agency of his choice", in order to tell them "just what he has confessed under interrogation." The offer had a twist: to make sure that Ramin would keep his side of the bargain, he had to post two houses as bail ? his mother's as well as his own. The student news agency interview was the result.

Iran is clearly trying to restrain its public intellectuals and purge its liberal and secular professors. The leash is short and getting shorter. I just hate it when proponents of repressive, right-wing, fundamentalist regimes attack reformers, public intellectuals, and liberal and secular professors.

Ramin Jahanbegloo: a repressive release Rasool Nafisi - openDemocracy
Postal interviews Jahanbegloo at Logos

UPDATE: More background and analysis of Jahanbegloo's release and interview can be found at Aljazeera and at Hossein Derakhshan's blog Editor:Myself.

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