Great conversation w/ @Bourdain & @YeganehSalehi in Darband, Tehran. Looking forward to #partsunknown #iran episode pic.twitter.com/2S3yi5UNZS
— Jason Rezaian (@jrezaian) June 10, 2014
In a guest column in the Washington Post, Anthony Bourdain speaks out against the recent imprisonment of WaPo correspondent Jason Rezaian and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi. (Rezaian has since been accused of spying by the Iranian government.) Bourdain met the couple earlier this summer while filming an upcoming episode of his show, Parts Unknown, in Iran. In his WaPo piece, Bourdain writes that he dined with Rezaian and Salehi in a restaurant outside Tehran, where the couple were "deeply proud of their heritage and the country they were helping to show me."
Al-Monitor reports that Iran's government has used Rezaian's Twitter profile — and the fact that he follows "members of the neoliberal media lobby in BBC, CNN, Huffington Post" — as "evidence" of espionage. In his piece, Bourdain continues: "In short, two more kind, positive and open-minded ambassadors of understanding could hardly be imagined... They are nobody's enemy. They are without blame or malice. Why are they in jail?" The Iran episode of Parts Unknown will air sometime this fall.
· Why Did Iran Put This Couple in Jail? [WaPo]
· Detained Journalist Accused of Spying in Iran [Al-Monitor]
· All Parts Unknown Coverage on Eater [-E-]