10 Months Later, Esha Momeni Home From Iran


8/14/09: Trapped in Iran for 10 months, Esha Momeni finally returned home to California on August 11, 2009. Upon return to the Cal State Northridge campus, she was interviewed about prison, interrogation, local support for her case, and the Iranian elections. For background on her illegal arrest and imprisonment, scroll down this page.












Esha Momeni Arrested and Jailed For Nothing

Esha Momeni On October 15, 2008, 28 year-old CSUN postgrad student Esha Momeni was arrested while in Iran, purportedly for a traffic violation. Her relative's residence where she was staying was searched, and her computer, film footage and other belongings were confiscated. Esha was held captive in solitary confinement in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, allowed only one phone call to her father.

After over three weeks of incarceration, Esha was finally released on $200,000 bail put up by her father, and currently stands trial for 'propagating against the government'.

Esha's story has made news all over the world, including CNN, BBC, the New York Times, and Iran's own state media. The U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Nobel Women's Initiative have all made statements on the matter; while friends, professors and colleagues at California State University, Northridge worked toward her release.

On November 4th, a judiciary spokesperson for the Islamic Republic said that Esha was being detained for acting against "national security".

A dual citizen, Momeni was in Iran to collect signatures for the One Million Signatures Campaign, intended to promote changes in the discriminatory laws toward women, and to interview Iranian women activists for a documentary film project.

Esha's situation is shocking and outrageous, but not unusual. To date, over 50 individuals from the One Million Signatures Campaign have reportedly been arrested.

In 2003, Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was arrested in Iran while photographing student demonstrators and jailed in Evin prison, where she was beaten to death. Shirin Ebadi, who was the main representative of Kazemi's family in the subsequent murder trial, wrote about Kazemi in her memoirs Iran Awakening. Kazemi, like Momeni, held joint citizenship, and was passionate about justice and particularly women's issues.

Esha Momeni's case is now being represented by an attorney with Shirin Ebadi's human rights group. Ebadi has said that Esha's arrest has no legal basis. Esha is is still being held in Iran against her will, banned from leaving the country.




Don't sit silently!

Please sign the petition: www.petitiononline.com/EshaM/petition.html

For more info and updates on Esha's status: http://for-esha.blogspot.com

IRANIAN GOVERNMENT CONTACTS:


Speaker of the Majles (Parliament)
ATTN: Ali Larijani
Tel: + 98 21 39931
Email: info@majlis.ir

Foreign Affairs Officer, Iran Section
Aaron Pina
US Department of State
Office of International Religious Freedom, DRL Bureau
2428 HST Washington, DC 20521
Tel: (202) 647-1422

Director, Human Rights Headquarters of Iran
ATTN: His Excellency Mohammad Javad Larijani
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh (Office of the Head of the Judiciary)
Pasteur St, Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran 1316814737, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 21 3390 4986
Email: int_aff@judiciary.ir

President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 21 6 649 5880
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir





Related links:

Journalist Roxana Saberi Arrested in Iran- January 2009

Nobel Prize Winning Lawyer, Judge Shirin Ebadi: Iran Awakening

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