Freed professor returning to Montreal

Homa Hoodfar will make her long-awaited return to Canada today after spending nearly four months in an Iranian prison.

The retired Canadian-Iranian anthropology professor was released earlier this week and flown out of Iran to Oman. Concordia University said in a statement Wednesday that Hoodfar, 65, will land early today and meet reporters at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport.

Hoodfar had been detained since June 6 at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison on allegations of “dabbling in feminism” and security matters on what her family and supporters called trumpedup accusations of collaboration with a hostile government and propaganda against the state.

Hoodfar is known for her research on Muslim women in various regions of the world and a colleague suggested Monday that Iranian authorities were particularly struck by her research on homosexuality and women’s sexuality in the context of Muslim countries.