The arrest and imprisonment of Iranian-American graduate student Esha Momeni received national attention last semester when she was jailed while working on her thesis project in Iran.

Momeni, 28, was arrested and held without bail Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008 for allegedly passing another vehicle illegally on Moddaress highway.’ She was held in solitary confinement at Evin prison for roughly two and a half weeks before being released and the deed to her parents’ home taken as bail.
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Esha Momeni, a mass communications graduate student who was held in confinement in Iran last fall for 25 days while working on research for the women’s movement, received the first Academic Freedom Award Tuesday night almost seven months after she was apprehended.