Esha Momeni, an Iranian-American student from Cal State Northridge who was imprisoned while working on her thesis project, was released earlier this month after 25 days in jail. But Iranian authorities have not returned her passport and are not allowing her to exit the nation freely, despite reports coming out of Iran, according to Anasa Sinegal who runs a MySpace page dedicated to freeing the student.
In what seems like mind games, officials told the LA Times last week that there were no obstacles preventing her to leave the country, but her father told the paper that all her travel documents were being held by authorities.
Esha’s family lives in Iran, but she left several years ago for a masters degree in the United States. The Californian-born student went back to Iran to work on her master thesis project on the Iranian women’s movement, but was arrested on October 15 for allegedly passing another vehicle while driving in Tehran. She faces “potentially serious charges of undermining national security and spreading propaganda against the republic,” but no trial date has been set.
Friends were looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with her. “We’re all spending time with friends and family this week and we were hoping we’d be giving thanks for having Esha back in L.A.,” CSUN mass communication graduate student Vanessa Mora said in a statement sent to the press. “We wanted to see her celebrate this holiday she can’t celebrate anywhere else but now we don’t know what will happen next.”
