our graduate student, Esha Momeni, to return to the United States. Esha was
first arrested and jailed in October for conducting video interviews for her
master's thesis about the Iranian women's movement. Although she was
released in November on a $200,000 bail, she was not allowed to leave Iran
and missed the entire fall semester. If she does not return within the next
few weeks, she will miss spring semester as well. As 2009 begins, everyone
is paying close attention to Iran. The government of Iran has said that it
wants educational exchanges with the United States, yet it will not allow
Esha, a dual national, to do exactly that – to return to the U.S. to
continue her academic work, which aims to present a positive image of
Iranian women to the West. In the spirit of supporting cross-cultural
understanding, we are asking that Esha be allowed to return to California
this month to resume her studies."
