Tajbakhsh’s Freedom

What was lost in the debate surrounding Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia is one of the most important reasons for the University to celebrate. On the same day the invitation to Ahmadinejad was announced, Kian Tajbakhsh, who received his Ph.D. at Columbia, was freed from the Iranian prison that he had been held in since May. Tajbakhsh, an urban planner and adviser to the Open Society Institute, was one of several Iranian-Americans arrested in Iran in recent months—none of whom were charged with specific crimes. Iranian prisons are notoriously unjust and are often used as tools to silence political dissidents. In the absence of a proper legal system, it can take years to release a prisoner, especially one held simply for being an American citizen. While there is no direct causal link between the University’s invitation to the Iranian president and Tajbakhsh’s release, calls for his release from both President Lee Bollinger and Dean John Coatsworth kept the issue from disappearing from the public eye.

Tajbakhsh’s freedom would be reason enough for the University to celebrate. But in his introduction to the Iranian president, President Bollinger called on Ahmadinejad to allow Tajbakhsh to leave Tehran, where he is under house arrest, and offered the alumnus a position next semester as an adjunct professor in the School of Urban Planning. With the platform Bollinger had, he made Tajbakhsh’s return to the United States a national issue.

Whether or not one agrees with the political implications of inviting Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia, the event was an excellent platform to address this essential issue. The Iranian leader’s talk may not have had the global impact that Bollinger had hoped for; it may not have answered the questions people wanted answered. But it drew international attention to the plight of Tajbakhsh and other academics who are unjustly imprisioned. If this is all Bollinger’s opening statement accomplished, then it can be considered a success.