News

Esha Momeni, an American student visiting Iran, has been arrested and held in solitary confinement in the notorious section 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison for daring to campaign for women’s rights.

Friends, who have had no contact with her since she was arrested more than a fortnight ago, fear that she will be tortured. Her computer and film footage were seized by intelligence officials and she has not been allowed any visits by her family or her lawyer.

Her arrest comes as the hard-line government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has launched a crackdown on the One Million Signatures campaign, which fights for equal rights in a country where women are treated as second-class citizens.

Momeni, 28, who was born in America but brought up in Iran, returned to Tehran from her studies in the US two months ago to work on a documentary about Iranian feminists. She was making the film as part of her postgraduate course at California State University, Northridge.

The equal rights campaign, which aims to persuade a million Iranians to sign a petition to the Iranian parliament, has irritated the regime, already beset by falling oil prices, high unemployment and runaway inflation.

During her two-month stay in Tehran, Momeni’s activities appeared harmless. She joined women printing homemade leaflets in their flats and interviewed fellow campaigners.

Fearing arrest for “endangering the state”, the campaigners surreptitiously... >>>