In Iran, Ramin Jahanbegloo turned “a small office in an arts and culture NGO into something of an international salon. Through force of will and a gregarious personality, he persuaded some of the world’s most famous intellectuals to travel to Tehran, where they were treated like rock stars.” Now Jahanbegloo is in jail. “He was arrested at Tehran airport on April 27, between a sojourn in India and a trip to a conference in Brussels, and locked up in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where detainees are routinely subject to torture and abuse. Formal charges have not been laid, but Iran’s minister of intelligence said Jahanbegloo was picked up because of ‘relations with foreigners’.”