24Former Miss North Dakota Arrested and Detained in Iran!

This is VERY scary stuff! A former Miss North Dakota — and a Miss USA top-ten finalist — has been detained in Iran for almost a whole month after being arrested for buying wine, which is illegal in the Islamic Republic.

Roxana Saberi, 31, has not been heard from since her last call on Feb. 10, her father, Reza, told The Associated Press on Sunday.

“We haven’t heard anything,” he said. The family decided to go public, he said, “because we wanted to get some information.”

Officials in Iran have not publicly confirmed the arrest. A duty officer at the U.S. State Department said Sunday officials were looking into an AP request for information on the case.

Roxana was working in Iran as a journalist for NPR and was planning to write a book about the country. NPR said Iran revoked her press credentials more than a year ago but apparently let her report short news stories.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Roxana. Get home safe, girl!

March 1, 2009 at 4:44 pm by Evil Beet