Homa Hoodfar: arrested in Iran.

Various issues concerning Concordia University are often reported on by news outlets. Here is the most recent coverage pertaining to the institution: 

• Extensive coverage continues of the detention, in Iran's Evin prison, of retired Concordia professor Homa Hoodfar, as Iranian authorities continue to block all contact with Hoodfar and with no official charge yet filed against the academic: 
• Yesterday's story, initially covered in hundreds of news outlets, is picked up by dozens more media, includingPayvand Iran News, Pakistan Observer, Al Arabiya, The Lebanon Daily Star, the Boston Globe (picking up from The New York Times), La Parisienne, 24 Matins (France), 24 heures (Switzerland), Mondafrique, Kompas Internasional (in Indonesian), Boursorama, Vice News, Canada Standard, Hungarian Free Press  and Buzz Feed News. The Washington Post, which reported early yesterday on the arrest, files a second story on Hoodfar's interrogation and detention.
• Montreal's CTV News and Global News each present a profile of Hoodfar, both featuring Hoodfar's niece, Montrealer Amanda Ghahremani, and a friend and former Concordia colleague of Hoodfar, professor Marguerite Mendell.
• CBC News reports that friends and former Concordia colleagues and students of Hoodfar are looking for ways to help secure her release from Evin prison: it quotes Marguerite Mendell, professor in the School of Community and Public Affairs, Kimberley Manning, political science professor and principal of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, and Kathryn Jezer-Morton, a former student of Hoodfar. Concordia President Alan Shepard is quoted from a statement posted on Concordia's website. 
• Radio Canada International (in French and in English) The Toronto Star (picking up from Associated Press)  and The Canadian Press (CP) report that Amnesty International is demanding Iran release Hoodfar. It cites Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, who says Hoodfar is a prisoner of conscience. It also reports that Hoodfar's family has indicated that the academic, who taught social anthropology at Concordia, was arrested as she conducted research on the condition of women in Iran. The CP story is picked up by dozens of media, including CTVNews.ca, The Toronto Star, Le Devoir, L'actualité, Castanet, CJAD and Journal Métro.
• CBC.ca Radio Canada International (reprised by MSN actualités) reports that even as Iran maintains a news blackout on Hoodfar's condition and legal status, Teheran continues to press Ottawa to extradite an Iranian banker suspected of involvement in fraudulent financial activity. The Globe and Mail also reports on the Iranian demand for the extradition and a possible link between that situation and Hoodfar's arrest. 
• The English edition of Asharq Al-Awsat, an Arabic international newspaper headquartered in London, reports that Iran's Revolutionary Gard, which carried out the Hoodfar arrest, is suspected of actively obstructing the Iranian government's efforts to normalize ties with Western countries, including Canada. 
• The National Post quotes a friend of Hoodfar who says the retired professor was researching women’s participation in political life in Tehran when she was arrested, but that she is not an activist. 
• Hoodfar's arrest is mentioned in a report in Inside Higher Ed about "Universities in a Dangerous World", a three-day meeting at McGill, wrapping up today. A colleague of Hoodfar, McGill professor Vrinda Narain, spoke on Hoodfar's behalf during the Congress.
• The Globe and Mail publishes an opinion piece by Marina Nemat, co-chair of the board of directors at the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture. Nemat, who was once detained at Evin prison, where Hoodfar is being held, says she was tortured and raped during her imprisonment in 1982, at age 16.  She urges Canadians across civil society to press Iran on human rights. 
• Finally, the Hoodfar arrest is mentioned briefly in a roundup of the latest news stories and editorials published in Iranian news outlets and compiled by CriticalThreats.org

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