Esha Momeni released on bail

Today, at 5 pm in Tehran, Esha Momeni was released from prison on bail
(a deed to her family's house). According to the deputy general prosecutor of Tehran, Hasan Hadad,the charge against Esha is "propaganda against the state". Esha Momeni, a graduate student at California State University Northridge, and a volunteer in the One Million Signatures Campaign had been kept in solitary confinement since October 15.

This weblog will continue its work until the return of Esha to California and to her studies at CSUN. Any future news as her case progresses through the courts will be posted here.

90 Scholars signed a statement for Esha Momeni's release

Near 90 University Professors and scholars signed a statement in support of arrested graduate student, Esha Momeni. Below is the text of the statement and the signatures:

We, the undersigned, have heard with great alarm of the arrest in Tehran, on Wednesday October 15, 2008, of Esha Momeni, a graduate student conducting research in Iran as part of her Master's degree requirements in Mass Communications at California State University, Northridge. She has not been charged with any offense, and has not been allowed contact with her lawyer.

Esha Momeni had been in Iran for two months to visit her family and to conduct research for her Master's degree thesis, which included interviews with some members of a grassroots women's rights campaign called the "One Million Signatures Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws." The Campaign has made it clear that its activities are peaceful that it has no political objectives.

Esha has stated that the purpose of her work is to better the lives of her fellow citizens and banish negative stereotypes of Iranians through photo and film. Ms. Momeni has passionately sought to promote inter-cultural communication between Americans and Iranians and we are therefore dismayed that she should have been arrested and detained despite not having engaged in any unlawful activities.

We, the undersigned professors, academics, and concerned scholars stand in solidarity with California-State University Northridge in condemning Esha's detention and the confiscation of her research material. We therefore respectfully urge you:

- to release Ms. Momeni immediately and give back her research materials so that she can return to complete her education.
- to guarantee that Ms. Momeni is treated fairly and provided all legal rights due her in detention, including immediate and regular access to her family, lawyer and any medical treatment necessary in light of her medical condition (kidney stones).
- to affirm your commitment to the promotion of free and open dialogue to the benefit of all scholars and academic institutions across the world.

Intellectual exchange and scholarly collaboration are essential for fostering knowledge and academic inquiry in our communities. These activities only benefit us all.

Yours Sincerely,

The Undersigned

. Ahmed-Ghosh, Huma – Professor, Department of Women's Studies, Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies, San Diego State University

. Alamdari, Kazem – Professor, Department of Sociology, California State University, Northridge

. Alpers Edward A., Professor and Chair, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles

. Amiran, Eyal - Associate Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine

. Benavides, José Luis - Associate Professor, Journalism Department, California State University, Northridge

. Bitel, Lisa M. – Professor and Chair, Gender Studies Program Director, Monastic Matrix University of Southern California

. Brown, Brené - Professor, Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston

. Bloch, Ruth - Professor, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles

. Blumenkrantz, David - Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism, California State University, Northridge

. Bruhn, Lisa M. – Professor, Department of Political Science, University of California Santa Barbara

. Brodkin, Karen – Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles

. Bruhn, Kathleen – Professor, Department of Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara

. Burton, Mike M. - Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine

. Chomsky, Noam - Institute Professor & Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

. Cooperson, Michael, Professor of Arabic, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California Los Angeles

. Cooper, Melinda – Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Sydney

. Coutin, Susan – Professor, Department of Criminology, Law & Society, University of California, Irvine

. Dabashi, Hamid – Professor, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University

. Davaran, Fereshteh - University of California, Berkley

. Deeb Lara - Associate Professor, Department of Women's Studies, University of California, Irvine

. Demovic, Angela R. - Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Wichita State University

. ElShakry, Omnia - Associate Professor, Department of History, University of California, Davis

. Eileraas, Karina - Department of Women's Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

. Estrin, Deborah – Professor, Department of Computer Science, Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of California, Los Angeles

. Ejikeme, Anene - Assistant Professor, Department of History, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas

. Gallagher, Nancy – Chair and Professor, Middle East Studies Program, University of California Santa Barbara

. Garb, Paula – Professor, Co-Director of the Center for Citizen Peace Building, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine

. Gheytanchi, Elham - Sociology Department, Santa Monica College

. Gibson, Steve – Professor , Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles

. Giroux, Henry A. – Chair and Professor, Department of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University

. Golden, Rebecca - Department of Anthropology, Tulane University

. Grewal, Inderpal - Professor, Women's Studies, School of Humanities, University of California, Irvine

. Gutter, Briana - Department of Communication Studies, California State University, Northridge

. Hale, Sondra – Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles

. Hasenauer, Jim - Professor, Communication Studies, California State University, Northridge

. Hayes, John L. - Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Southern California, Berkeley

. Hirsch, Barbara - Arts Library, University of California, Santa Barbara

. Hoffman, Donald D. – Professor, Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine

. Holmes, Douglas - Professor, Department of Anthropology, Harpur College of Arts and Science, State University of New York at Binghamton

. Hussain, Hassan, Department of Modern Languages, Santa Monica College

. Joseph, Suad - Director, Middle East/South Asia Studies, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis

. Jarratt, Susan C. – Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine

. Kagan, Al - Professor of Library Administration and African Studies Bibliographer , University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

. Karimi-Hakkak, Ahmad - Professor and Founding Director of the Center for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland

. Kaminski, Marek – Professor, Department of Political Science, University of California, Irvine

. Keddie, Nikki- Professor Emeritus, Department of History, University of California ,Los Angeles

. King, Katherine – Professor, Department of Comparative Literature and Classics, University of California, Los Angeles

. Klammer, Thomas P. - Dean of the College of Humanities & Social Sciences at California State University, Fullerton

. Kramer, Alejandra Letelier –Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz

. Lavine, Adrienne – Chair and Professor , Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles

. Littleton, Christine A. – Chair and Professor , Women's Studies Department, University of California, Los Angeles

. Mailloux Steven , Professor of English and Chancellor's Professor of Rhetoric
University of California, Irvine

. Makau, Lynn - Assistant Professor , Department of English Program in African American & African Studies, Center for Gender in Global Context, Michigan State University

. Marafiote, Tracy - Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, State University of New York, Fredonia

. Marshall, Jennifer , Department of Communication Studies; California State University, Northridge

. McClary, Susan – Professor, Department of Musicology, University of California, Los Angeles

. Mashayekhi, Mehrdad - Assistant Professor , Department of Sociology, George Town University, Washington, DC

. Miller-Von Ah, Jenna - Graduate Coordinator , Department of Women's Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

. Mitchell, Laura – Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of California, Irvine

. Montoya Michael-- Assistant Professor , Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine

. Monroe, Kristen Renwick – Professor, Department of Political Science, University of California, Irvine

. Mufti, Aamir - Associate Professor , Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Los Angeles

. Navab, Mohammad - Professor of Cardiology, University of California, Los Angeles

. Pateman, Carole – Professor, Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles

. Pacheco, Denise - Department of Education and Informational Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

. Peterson, Kristin - Assistant Professor , Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine

. Pirnazar, Jaleh - Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkley

. Pottie, Gregory – Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Associate Dean of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of California, Los Angeles

. Rahimieh, Nasrin – Professor, Humanities Department of Comparative Literature , Maseeh Chair and Director, Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies, University of California, Irvine

. Robertson, James B. - Professor Emeritus, Department of Mathematics, University of California, Santa Barbara

. Rahmandad, Hazhir – Assistant Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, Virginia Tech

. Rodriguez, Jason - Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz

. Sabar, Yona – Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles

. Saberi, Kourosh – Professor, Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine

. Sahimi, Mohammad – Professor, NIOC Chair in Petroleum Engineering, University of Southern California

. Sakharov, Mae - Educational Director, College Counselor and School Consultant

. Schwab, Gabriele - Chancellor's Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine

. Searls-Giroux, Susan - Associate Professor, Department of English and Cultural, Studies, McMaster University

. Sharpe, Jenny- Professor, Department of English, University of California, Los Angeles

. Shigekane, Rachel - Director of Programs Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley

. Schaefer, Karl R. - Professor of Librarianship, Director of the Center for the Humanities, Drake University

. Solomon-Godeau, Abigail - Professor, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara

. Sorrells, Kathryn - Associate Professor , Department of Communication Studies, California State University, Northridge

. Terada, Rei –Professor, Director, Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine

. Tsao, Tsu-Chin –Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering at Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of California, Los Angeles

. Thiong'o, Ngugi wa - Director, International Center for Writing and Translation, Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine

. Tohidi, Nayereh - Chair and Professor, Gender & Women's Studies, California State University, Northridge

. Vatter, Sherry – Lecturer, Department of History, California State University, Long Beach

. Wall, Melissa - Associate Professor of Communication, California State University, Northridge

. Winant, Howard – Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara

. Williams, Betty - 1976 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, A Founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement