The Middle East Studies Association of North America has written a letter to Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to protest the imprisonment of a prominent Iranian-American academic, Haleh Esfandiari, and warning that her detention has triggered “grave concern” and sends a “chilling message to scholars throughout the world,” The Washington Post reported.

Ms. Esfandiari, who is director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, had traveled to Tehran in December to visit her 93-year-old mother and was detained for questioning, at first under house arrest but in prison for the past two weeks. In its letter to President Ahmadinejad, the association said her imprisonment violated the republic’s Constitution because she has been denied legal counsel. Iran’s judiciary has said that she is being investigated for “crimes against national security.” —Charles Huckabee