IN MY SHOES: Imprisoned In Iran: Part II
Iranian-American academic Haleh Esfandiari, 67, spent 105 days in an Iranian jail on suspicion of spying and endangering Iran’s national security. Previously, her husband had written about her ordeal in The New York Times. She was finally released on Aug. 21 and allowed to leave the country a couple of weeks later. In a telephone interview from Vienna, she tells The Washington Post how she coped with the stress of solitary confinement and not knowing what was going to happen to her:
"I was sitting in my cell and through the bars I saw [the moon] and I said, 'Oh, my G-d, there is the moon.' A month later I saw the moon again, and then I saw it a third time. It was quite tough. I was lonely and anxious." …
"Once they arrested me and I got over the shock, I decided either I survive or break down. To sit and think all the time was going to kill me, so I developed a schedule." …
During her 105-day incarceration, Esfandiari worked out daily for an hour before breakfast on the floor of her cell. When she was not under interrogation, she did various exercises between 9:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. and again for an hour in the evening before going to sleep. Occasionally she was allowed to walk in a small prison courtyard, although always alone. She never saw anyone but her interrogators and female guards.
Between stress and exercise, she lost about 20 pounds, she said, and now weighs only 88 pounds.
Esfandiari said she kept her mind busy by writing - in her head, not on paper - a biography of her grandmother. … she slept on a mattress she fashioned from six blankets and used two chadors, the enveloping black cloth that Muslim women use to cover themselves, as sheets. She eventually requested a desk and chair like those used in schools so she did not have to sit on the floor.
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