Canadian-Iranian professor Homa Hoodfar freed from prison in Iran
MONTREAL — Retired Canadian-Iranian professor Homa Hoodfar has been released from an Iranian prison and is recovering with family in Oman, her friends and colleagues confirmed Monday, four months after her arrest that made headlines around the world.
Last March, shortly before she was to return to Canada after a trip to Iran, Hoodfar, 65, was detained and then released on bail but kept under house arrest. She was re-arrested and held in Tehran’s Evin prison since June 6.
The exact reasons for her detention were never made public, but her family and colleagues have indicated she ran afoul of Iranian authorities due to her research on homosexuality and women’s sexuality in the context of Muslim countries.
Until recently, Hoodfar taught anthropology and sociology at Montreal’s Concordia University, where colleagues told a news conference they were overjoyed with her release.