Syria should free Dorothy Parvaz!

Al Jazeera English has called for the immediate release of Dorothy Parvaz, after Syrian officials confirmed that they are holding her. An Al Jazeera spokesman said: "We are worried about Dorothy's welfare, security and safety. Syria should release her immediately."

Dorothy Parvaz was detained upon arrival in Damascus on April 29th. She has had no contact with the outside world since.

It was reported that Ali Akbar Salehi, the Iranian foreign minister, has said at a news conference in Doha on Monday that Iran wanted the Syrians to look into the matter. "I hope that it is not true, but if that is the case, then we demand the government of Syria to look into this," Salehi said in response to a question on what Iran would undertake to secure Parvaz's release.

Born in Iran to an Iranian Canadian father and an American mother, Parvaz is a citizen of all three countries. She spent the first ten years of her childhood in Iran, before moving to Canada in 1981 where she graduated high school and the University of British Columbia.
After obtaining a master's degree in journalism at the University of Arizona, she worked in Japan for the English edition of Asahi Shimbun. Returning to the United States, she worked for the Seattle Times and then the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Dorothy is an experienced journalist who joined Al Jazeera in 2010. She graduated from the University of British Columbia, obtained a masters degree from Arizona University, and held journalism fellowships at both Harvard and Cambridge. She previously worked as a columnist and feature writer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper in the US.

Richard Evans, the president of Wolfson College in Cambridge, called on the Syrian authorities to guarantee Parvaz's safety. "It is with great concern that we learn that Dorothy Parvaz, [...] a former Press Fellow of Wolfson College, has gone missing in Syria and is currently unaccounted for. [...] we are anxious about her safety and well-being," he said. "We call on the Syrian authorities to respect press freedom, to guarantee Dorothy's safety and to enable her to discharge the duties for which she has trained so assiduously," Evans wrote.

Since the beginning of protests in the Middle East, journalists have faced ever increasing restrictions and danger in Syria and the rest of the region.

-> We, the undersigned, demand that government of Syria immediately releases Dorothy Parvaz.
-> We specifically ask Secretary Clinton to press for Dorothy Parvaz's freedom through all possible diplomatic channels.
-> We demand release of all other journalists detained anywhere in the Middle East.
-> We further call upon all regional governments to adhere to the freedom of Press and flow of information.

More Information is available at: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/dorothyparvaz/