Caging Iran's Lioness

Simin Behbahani, one of Iran's most beloved poets and writers, was taken into custody this weekend. The "Lioness of Iran," as Behbahani has come to be affectionately known, was apprehended as she tried to leave Tehran to give a speech on International Women's Day in Paris. Her passport was confiscated and she was eventually told to report to a Revolutionary Court.

Behbahani, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997, gave a poignant interview to NPR in the days following the Jule election. That interview, as well as a poem she recited about Neda Agha-Soltan, is embedded below: