From a report in today's Washington Post by Robin Wright:
Momentum is building behind an academic boycott of Iran to pressure the government to free imprisoned American scholar Haleh Esfandiari, who was jailed in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison on May 8 after more than four months under house arrest.There's not much information about the projected boycott, but from what the report goes on to say, the one being considered is not like the boycott overturned in the AUT two years ago; it is not a blacklisting of Iranian academics, as that was intended to be of Israeli academics. Wright quotes Juan Cole (see here) and Gary Sick to the effect that Esfandiari's imprisonment is grounds for not attending academic conferences in Iran. However, while the intention is different - solidarity with academics under attack and a protest against government repression of them - I don't think this is well-judged as a form of solidarity and protest. It isolates Iranian academics if Westerners decline to attend conferences in Iran. Wouldn't it be better precisely to attend those conferences, using the opportunity to speak against the actions of the Iranian government in attacking and imprisoning Iranian intellectuals?
For more on the case of Haleh Esfandiari see here, here and here.