Canadian professor in Guelph to speak about time in Iranian jail

Canadian professor Homa Hoodfar will be in Guelph Feb. 7 to discuss her experience of being detained in an Iranian prison.

Hoodfar is the speaker for this year's Winegard Lecture on International Development. The subject of her talk will be Politics, Sexuality and the Right to Critical Thinking: My Time in Evin Prison.

The lecture takes place Feb. 7 at 5:30 p.m. in the University of Guelph's Rozanski Hall.

An Iranian-Canadian, Hoodfar was on a personal and research visit to Iran in 2016 when her passports were confiscated. She was sent to Evin prison, infamous for detaining intellectuals, activists and journalists.

Held and subjected to interrogation for 112 days, Hoodfar has said she survived by studying her captors, and by writing on her cell walls about her experiences and interactions with other prisoners.

She was released last September.

An anthropology professor at Concordia University, Hoodfar is widely known for her work on culture and gender in the Middle East, said a U of G press release.

She studies legal and political anthropology, especially how political economy intersects with gender and citizenship rights, women’s politics, and gender and public life in Muslim societies.

The event is free and open to everyone.