Haleh is free, now what happens to Hannah Esfandiariُ

My most recent article for the Guardian is about the effect of U.S. economic sanctions on the Iranian academia and how Haleh Esfandiari's case comes to this picture.

Two sides of sanctions

On a sunny day in Washington, DC, my imaginary American scholar, Hannah Esfandiari, was sitting in her Kalorama-located house, opening a letter she had just received from Tehran, Iran.

It was a job offer from a prominent think tank at the heart of the Islamic Republic's policy-making machine. Her main job was going to be establishing contacts with Americans dissidents, scholars and activists and inviting them to Tehran to speak to high-ranking Iranian policy-makers, top officers of the Revolutionary Guards and the intelligence ministry.

But she could not take the job offer. Not because she was afraid of being charged with assisting a "state sponsor of terrorism" and perhaps being sent to Guantanamo Bay, but simply because, based on the Iranian Transactions Regulations, it would be illegal for her or any other American to sign any contract with, accept any funds from, or give any service to an Iranian citizen or organisation, wherever in the world. Violating that law could cost her up to 20 years of jail and a $250,000 fine.

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