LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA / TEHRAN, IRAN (ANS) -- Officials in the United States are looking into the recent arrest of an Iranian-American student in Tehran who was working on a research project on women's rights in Iran. Officials said Esha Momeni was arrested October 15 in Tehran, Iran.
Esha Momeni was arrested October 15 and is being held for interrogation in Section 209, the notorious security ward of Iran's Evin prison in Tehran, Iran, US officials said.According to CNN, Esha Momeni, a graduate student at California State University-Northridge, was arrested October 15 in Tehran for unlawfully passing another vehicle while driving, according to Change For Equality, an Iranian women's movement.
"We're seeking additional information about this case," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Wednesday. "We stand with all those in Iran who are working for universal human rights and justice in their countries."
CNN reports that Momeni, who was born in Los Angeles, California, is a member of Change for Equality's California chapter. She arrived in Tehran two months ago to work on her Masters' thesis project on the Iranian women's movement, according to the group, which is in touch with Momeni's family in Iran.
CNN says Momeni is being held in a section of Tehran's notorious Evin Prison that is managed by the Intelligence Ministry, the group said. Evin Prison houses many Iranian dissidents and political prisoners, and it is where four Iranian-Americans were held for several months last year. All have been released.
Iranian officials had promised Momeni's family that she would be immediately released if the news of her arrest was not published, the organization said, according to a CNN report.
"While Esha's friends and colleagues were insistent about announcing the news of her arrest immediately, based on requests from her family this news was announced with delay," Change for Equality said on its Web site.
Momeni's parents decided to release the information after they went to Iran's Revolutionary Court on Sunday -- five days after her arrest -- to inquire about her case, and they were told not to return until the investigation into her case has been completed, according to Change for Equality.
CNN explained that the Momeni family returned to Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution, but Esha had gone back to the United States several years ago to study for her Masters' degree, according to a blog post from her journalism professor, Melissa Wall.
A separate blog calling for her release (
http://www.for-esha.blogspot.com/ ) has been established and includes an interview with Wall, who describes her student as "an exceptionally bright person, very creative and artistic." She calls herself "shocked" to hear of Momeni's arrest.
"I'm aware that such things happen in Iran, but I'm confident that they have nothing to fear from Esha's research project," Wall said. "It is simply an academic exercise, not meant for publication outside of academic circles. I cannot image why she should be held in detention."
On her personal blog, Wall said, "She is a videographer who was simply interviewing Iranian women. She has broken no laws, has not done anything wrong."
In a report by Matthew Weaver and with information from other news agencies on the website
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ , it was stated that Momeni was working on her thesis on women's rights in Iran. She was arrested for unlawfully passing another vehicle while driving October 15 and is being held in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison. News of arrest was originally withheld because her family was told she would be released
According to Amnesty International, she was initially arrested for a traffic offence on October 15, but then her computer and other materials were confiscated, and she was taken to Evin prison, which is notorious for holding political prisoners.
The Guardian, a British newspaper, says her family was told by an Iranian court that her case was still being investigated and no details would be released until after the inquiry was completed. Iranian judicial officials have not commented on the case, and no other details were immediately available in Iran.
Momeni is a member of the Iranian women's rights group Change for Equality, and the university has called for her to be released.
"Anyone who values knowledge and the role of academic inquiry in shedding light on the human condition should be concerned," said the university's president, Jolene Koester.
The US state department said it was aware of reports of Momeni's arrest and was seeking more information. Friends of Momeni have launched a website and Facebook group calling for her release.
Melissa Wall, Momeni's thesis adviser, said the student was aware of the risks of her work.
"We talked about the dangers. But in the end, it was her decision to go. She was interested in communicating to Americans a broader image of Iranian women."
Amnesty International said dozens of other activists and supporters have been arrested in Iran in connection with their work on the Change for Equality campaign, launched by Iranian women activists in September 2006. The campaign is seeking to collect a million signatures in support of changing laws that deny women in Iran equal rights.
Momeni was born in Los Angeles. Her father moved to the city in 1977 to pursue a civil engineering degree but later returned to Iran with his family. Momeni is being held for interrogation in Section 209, the notorious security ward of Iran's Evin prison.
An article in the Los Angeles Times by Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi says Momeni was "playing with fire" when she returned to Tehran from Southern California to work on a project about women's rights.
The two reporters state she "escaped an unhappy marriage and the restraints of a traditional society, finding solace in poetry and a calling in women's rights activism in the West."
They say: "But the drama of contemporary Iran continued to tug at her. After living in her native Southern California for the last three years, Momeni returned to Tehran two months ago to videotape interviews for a project on women's rights. Amid a crackdown on such activities, she was playing with fire."
According to the LA Times report, Momeni, 28, was abruptly arrested two weeks ago. On Tuesday, she was still being held for interrogation in Section 209, the notorious security ward of Iran's Evin prison.
Her father and lawyer told The Times she had been allowed to make only one phone call to her family, and that her lawyer, Mohammed Ali Dadkhah, said Momeni was being denied access to legal counsel as a "temporary detainee," a condition that could last two months.
Before her arrest, Momeni had been scheduled to head back to California on Monday, her father said.
"The last time I talked to my daughter was one day after her arrest," said Reza Momeni, 60, a Tehran civil engineer. "She called me and said: 'Dad, I miss my family. Please give all my videos to the security guy coming to collect them.' "
The newspaper reports that Iranian officials say Esha Momeni is under investigation. No formal charges have been lodged.
"The relevant institutions and organizations are following the case," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi told reporters in Tehran on Monday. "She is under investigation and until the investigation is finalized, we cannot make any comment."
The LA Times says that before her arrest, Momeni, a Cal State Northridge student, followed a path that differed from much of the rest of Southern California's Iranian diaspora. Whereas many Iranians fled to the United States after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, her family moved back to Iran from the U.S. in the early 1980s.
Reza Momeni, a U.S. citizen and father of five, was studying in Southern California at the time of the revolution. When war broke out between Iran and Iraq in 1980, he moved his family back home. He helped rebuild damaged sites, working in conflict-ravaged areas around cities such as Bandar Abbas and Bushehr.
The paper says Esha Momeni showed an early passion for the arts, learning to play the tar, a traditional string instrument, and delving into poetry and literature. She graduated from a Tehran college with a degree in graphics and in 2003 married a man her father described as a "male chauvinist" with emotional problems.
"She had a bad experience," her father said. "Finally she managed to end her ordeal by divorcing him."
The LA Times report says that the bitter breakup drove her from arts to activism, specifically women's rights issues. She began participating in the One Million Signatures Campaign for Equality, a group that connects activists in Iran with Iranian communities in the West.
The Times says that activist organizations, many of which advocate peaceful political and social change, greatly irk authorities in the Islamic Republic. Iran accuses them of being fronts for Western powers seeking to topple the government using the "velvet revolution" tactics that contributed to the downfall of regimes in former Soviet states.
A report issued this month by a United Nations human rights watchdog raised concerns about "an increasing crackdown in the past year on the women's rights movement" in Iran, the newspaper stated.
"Women's rights activism is sometimes presented by the Iranian government as being connected to external security threats to the country," the report says.
On Sunday, security agents blocked Sussan Tahmasebi, a leader of One Million Signatures, from leaving Iran and seized her passport, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Momeni moved back to the U.S. after her divorce in 2005. She joined with other scholars and activists working to improve the lot of Iranian women. Their activities sound harmless: gathering signatures for petitions, holding workshops and informing women of their legal rights.
However, Momeni's father says it was sentiment and family, not politics, that lured her back to Iran. "Whenever we talked about Iran she was tempted to come back," he said. "My daughter was not against the political order."
Against the advice of her academic advisors at Cal State Northridge, she returned two months ago to videotape interviews with women about their lives in Iran for a master's degree project, the newspaper said.
She was stopped Oct. 15 on Modarres Highway, Tehran's main north-south expressway, allegedly for speeding. Soon after she called her father, weeping. "She was scared," he recalled.
Security officers escorted her home, where they seized her computer before taking her away, the paper reported.
At a hearing at one of Tehran's Revolutionary Courts, a judge refused to accept the deed to the Momenis' home as bail or allow Dadkhah, a noted attorney, to speak on her behalf. For now, the lawyer has been briefing Momeni's mother on making legal presentations, the Times said.
"Every day, first thing in the morning, she goes to the entrance of Revolutionary Court, hoping to see her brought to trial," Reza Momeni said of his wife.
Dadkhah said he was confident the young woman would be released soon.
"Based on my experience, these sorts of arrests are conducted by low-level security personnel, rank-and-file personnel," he told The Times. "It takes time before the top officials are involved and settle the case wisely and prudently."
Reza Momeni noted that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted during a visit last month to the U.N. that Iranians were free to say what they wanted.
"If my daughter makes a film about women's rights because she is proud that Iranian women are asserting their rights," Momeni said, "what is wrong with that?"
