This is VERY scary stuff! A former Miss North Dakota — and a Miss USA top-ten finalist — has been detained in Iran for almost a whole month after being arrested for buying wine, which is illegal in the Islamic Republic.
Roxana Saberi, 31, has not been heard from since her last call on Feb. 10, her father, Reza, told The Associated Press on Sunday.
“We haven’t heard anything,” he said. The family decided to go public, he said, “because we wanted to get some information.”
Officials in Iran have not publicly confirmed the arrest. A duty officer at the U.S. State Department said Sunday officials were looking into an AP request for information on the case.
Roxana was working in Iran as a journalist for NPR and was planning to write a book about the country. NPR said Iran revoked her press credentials more than a year ago but apparently let her report short news stories.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Roxana. Get home safe, girl!
Is it really that hard to go without a case of wine for a few months?
The freedoms of being in America, are definitely taken for granted. The middle east is free country. You can be arrested and detained w/o reason or explanation for any length of time.
Sorry not a free countries I meant.
my point was she was in Iran for a reason, she obviously knew what type of justice happened there, yet she still decided to push her luck and break the law and got caught, I simply don’t have much sympathy.
omgosh Copa. you clearly know so much about this case. It must be crazy living in Iran, which you must, with such stellar first-hand knowledge of what actually happened!!
…..
What a delightful attitude you have.
It’s actually quite possible that she wasn’t trying to buy wine.
She’s a reporter and the Iranian government’s known for silencing reporters that are doing things they don’t want them to. Remeber a few years ago with that Canadian-Iranian reporter who was just taking pictures? They arrested her and she ‘died’ in prison.
There are lots of cases like this where the police just kill people in prison and then don’t answer for it because the people are dead and what are they going to do?
I’m really glad her father’s spoken up about it, so it’s out there and people know she’s missing and where she was. But I think he needed to have gone to the press a lot sooner.
Very sad indeed. I’m an American born Iranian, and this is why I always look at people funny when they ask if I’ve ever gone back to the homeland. I’m iranian-Am woman, and I’m not stupid.
My niece worked in a spa in the Silicon Valley, CA. and she had a client who escaped Iran. Unfortunately she didn’t escape with her thumbs. They were cut off because she was wearing FINGER NAIL POLISH. Women suffer in unimaginable ways in Iran.
Iranian people are cool, it’s the goverment that’s f*cked up. I feel sorry for Iranians that have to live under this kind of tyranny. What’s the harm in a glass of wine? It’s more Islamic misogynistic shit.
The police there will arrest people for less. The government is made up of a bunch of animals. It’s actually sickening when you compare the current government to the one before it and realise how much has really been lost- and the people living in the country don’t seem to give a damn either; just content to sit by and watch their homeland get pulled through all manner of shit.
It’s a beautiful country, and I’d love to go there to visit my family and see all the great historical sites, but they won’t let me back in the country.
we watched Not Without My Daughter in class last month and holy cow am I glad to be living in the U.S.
also, in b4 donkey punch’s annoying liberal comments blahblahblah
Where the hell was she trying to buy wine if its illegal? If it is illegal than girlfriend shouldn’t have been seeking it out. As a pageant girl though I guess she’s not familiar with following rules..
she was fifteen kinds of retarded if she thought she was going to get away with buying ALCOHOL in an ISLAMIC REPUBLIC. Thats the bright idea equalavent of stapling porkchops to your clothes to ward off starving feral dogs.
What’s even more amazing is that such an exotic-looking woman made it to the finals in North ‘Did You Ever See The Movie Fargo That’s Where These Twats Are Coming From’ Dakota, you betcha.
And yes, copa, it is that hard to go a few months without wine. A few days, actually.
If it is true that buying wine caused her arrest, why didn’t she just do what every other Western female does in the middle east and get a man to buy it for her?
If anyone would like perspective on these issues, read the book “Dakhmeh” by Naveed Noori (a psuedonym). Very sad and insightful.
Or Reading Lolita in Tehran….
Or all the Shah’s Men about the CIA led coup in the 70’s.
um, for everyone hating on her bc she was buying wine…chances are, she wasn’t and was arrested because the government didn’t like her reporting. Repressive countries make up charges all the time to arrest journalists.
Thats terrible
i doubt she was trying to buy wine…she cannot be that stupid. i agree, it’s more likely she was doing a story the govt. didn’t like.
She was an Iranian-American. I think it’s less about wine and news reports as it is about Iran’s policy of harassing and detaining dual nationals from the states. Iran doesn’t recognize dual nationality, and many Americans from Iran have found themselves arrested, detained, or bothered by the authorities, often when coming and going from the country.
she is the person who definetely has certain values and eagerness to make a change in the world. I admire her and hope shewill get home safely. who knows what is she being through right now behind the walls of Iranian prison… I hope she is not being tortured
really,it is only for buying wine?? so crazy.
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about
this, like you wrote the book in it or something.
I think that you can do with some pics to drive the message home a bit, but other than that,
this is wonderful blog. A great read. I’ll definitely be back.