The AP reports:
An American university student in Iran to visit family and research women’s rights has been arrested and held in prison for more than a week, rights group Amnesty International said.
Esha Momeni, a student at California State University, Northridge, was driving on a highway in Tehran when she was stopped by authorities who said they were traffic police, the London-based Amnesty said.
Iranian officials said Momeni was arrested Oct. 15 for a traffic offense. But Amnesty said in a statement Tuesday she was taken to her family’s home where her computer and other materials related to her research on the Iranian women’s movement were confiscated.
Momeni, who is a member of the California branch of Change for Equality — an Iranian women’s rights group — was later taken to Evin prison, the Tehran facility notorious for holding political prisoners, Amnesty said.
Inside Higher Ed has more on Momeni, and others.