An American scholar accused of promoting revolution in Iran has been allowed to leave the country and reunite with her family in Austria, ending months of protests by human-rights groups and heated exchanges between Tehran and Washington.Haleh Esfandiari, 67, who was released on bail Aug. 21 after four months in prison, was contacted by Iranian authorities Sunday and told to pick up her passport, her lawyer told reporters Monday. She flew out of Tehran and arrived in Austria, where her sister lives, to rejoin her husband, Shaul Bakhash, a historian at George Mason University in Virginia.
"After a long and difficult ordeal, I am elated to be on my way back to my home and my family," Esfandiari said in a statement released by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, where she heads the Middle East program. "These last eight months that included 105 days in solitary confinement in Evin Prison have not been easy. But I wish to put this episode behind me and to look to the future, not to the past."
There also were indications that an Iranian American journalist working for a U.S.-funded radio program and charged with similar crimes will be allowed to leave the country. Parnaz Azima, a correspondent for Radio Farda, has been free on bail.
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