Clotilde Reiss seems one of those rare, wonderful people who fall in love with a country at a young age and revel in the beauty of the language, culture and society for the rest of their lives.
First introduced to Iran by her Iranian nanny in Paris, Clotilde built upon her knowledge of Persian to become a fellow at the French Research Institute in Tehran, and most recently, a French teacher at a university in the city of Esfahan.
Residing in the Jolfa district, she bedecked her apartment with Persian rugs and became a favourite with her neighbours, who adopted her as one of their own.
On July 1, en route to her departure to Beirut, 23-year-old Clotilde disappeared.
Confirmation has since been given that she is currently held in Evin prison on charges of espionage.
As would be expected, Clotilde participated in the recent demonstrations and – as one would – she subsequently accounted her experiences via e-mails and texts ameliorated by cellphone snapshots.
The crux of her detention hangs on one particular e-mail to a journalist in Tehran, though it has been deemed a “straightforward” account of events.
Despite Sarkozy’s heavy leaning on Iran, there has been no progress on her case.
At present, Clotilde is but one of many foreign nationals being detained: the Iranian Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, a freelance correspondent for Newsweek, and Hossein Rassam, a prominent political analyst at the British Embassy in Tehran, both remain imprisoned.
The riots have quietened, yet the injustice pervades.
I wonder how many innocent Iranians are also languishing in jail on trumped up charges; when the details are released it is questionable whether they will even reflect the true scale of detentions.
Such is the smaze of political unrest under a despotic regime: the reality is often inconceivably worse.
Arrested on extortion charges, the post-mortem recorded that Benmouna died after hanging himself from the plasterboard in his cell on Tuesday.
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