Syria says it turned Parvaz over to Iranian authorities May 1. But on May 2, Iran said it was seeking information about Parvaz from Syria. And on May 17 it said it was enquiring to find out what had happened to her, implying that she was not in Iran as Syria said—but never saying that outright.
On May 11, the Syrian embassy in Washington issued a statement saying Dorothy Parvaz, identified by her Iranian name of Feiruz Parvaz, was denied entry to Syria April 30 because of an expired Iranian passport and because she falsely identified “tourism” as her reason for travel when she was a journalist working for Al-Jazeera television’s English-language channel.
“It is very regretful that a journalist working for a world renowned news agency such as Al-Jazeera International would attempt to enter a country on two illegal accounts: an expired passport, and by providing false information on official documents regarding her travel reason. It is even more troubling if her employer was aware of and condoned this illegal activity,” the embassy said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi’s first comments on Parvaz’s detention were May 2, when he said, “I hope this news [of her arrest] is not true but if it is, we will urge the Syrian government to follow up on the matter.” That was the day after she had been flown to Tehran, according to Syria. When asked about Parvaz on May 14, Salehi said, “I have no information.”
On May 17, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast declined to answer questions about Parvaz’s whereabouts. He said the Foreign Ministry was “following the issue to find out what happened to Parvaz, which is important to us, too.” He pointedly did not deny Syria’s claim that it had sent Parvaz to Iran; he just ignored it. That only boosted suspicions that Parvaz was locked away in some Iranian dudgeon.
Parvaz’s American fiancé, Todd Barker, questioned why Syria deported Parvaz to Iran, telling the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation one reason was that “she was traveling on the Iranian passport.” Generally, however, Syria returns journalists to the country from which they entered Syria, not according to their passport, Bock said. Parvaz had flown to Syria from Qatar, Al-Jazeera’s headquarters.
Parvaz, 39, has three passports because she holds triple citizenship in Iran, Canada and the United States. She traveled to Syria on her Iranian passport because Iranians do not need advance visas to enter Syria.
The Syrian embassy said that because she was traveling with an expired passport, “the Syrian authorities contacted the Iranian embassy in Damascus in order to receive a laissez passer for her to travel, and was in turn extradited in accordance with international law to the passport issuing country.”
The Syrian embassy said she was escorted to Tehran by the Iranian consul on the May 1 Caspian Airlines flight, which was due to arrive in Tehran at 9 p.m. that night, the evening before Salehi claimed he was inquiring of Syria about Parvaz’s whereabouts.
The Syrian embassy statement of May 11, however, contradicted what Syrian officials told Al-Jazeera May 3—that Parvaz was in safe custody in Syria.
The International Press Institute (IPI) said, “The treatment of journalists in Iran and Syria is fueling fears that Dorothy Parvaz has been detained because she is a journalist. No journalist should be arrested and imprisoned because of their work.” The case of Parvaz was marked by an “unacceptable lack of transparency and information,” it added.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Syria is holding at least four journalists: Ghadi Frances of the Lebanese daily As-Safir; Mo-hamed Zayd Mastou of Al-Arabiyya television; freelance photographer Akram Darwish; and Fayiz Sara, a contributor to As-Safir and the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat.
Syria has accused the media of sensationalizing the protests and using images that have not been verified for their reports. But Syria has not allowed many journalists to enter the country and so international media has been relying largely on videos filmed by demonstrators, which the news reports routinely say cannot be verified.
Parvaz’s American mother and Iranian father divorced when she was five. She left Iran at the age of 10 in 1981, two years after the revolution. She lived for a while with her mother in San Diego, but later went to live with her father and his new wife in British Columbia.
Of the day his daughter told him she wanted to be a journalist, Fred Parvaz says, “I asked her to consider other options because it’s hard to get a job as a journalist. But there’s no changing her mind when she decides something.”
Barker, her fiancé, said, “I haven’t heard from my fiancée in two weeks and sometimes the pain is just unbearable.” Barker is a lawyer currently working in Luxembourg. He has been staying with Parvaz’s family in Canada since Parvaz disappeared.
Barker has said the couple, engaged since 2010, may move up their wedding plans “when she gets out.”