Arrested American woman felt the tug of Iran
Esha Momeni was playing with fire when she returned to Tehran from Southern California to work on a project about women's rights.
Reporting from Tehran and Beirut — 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.
But the drama of contemporary Iran continued to tug at her. After living in her native Southern California for the last three years, Esha 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.
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. She had been allowed to make only one phone call to her family, her father and lawyer told The Times.
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.' "
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."
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.
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.
