The father of a Los Angeles-born Iranian-American student who was arrested in Tehran has said that his daughter's activities were illegal.

"I was unaware of my daughter's activities but now I know that they were illegal," Esha Momeni's father, Gholam-Reza Momeni said in an interview with IRNA.

"When I realized that my daughter was involved in illegal activities, I and my wife refused to meet with her because we were angry about what she had done," he added.

Following the arrest of the graduate student, some media outlets reported that her parents had been prevented from seeing her.

Momeni's father, however, rejected the remarks that had been attributed to him and said the reports were the fruit of journalists' personal take and active imagination.

"A reporter contacted me and asked whether my daughter was detained. I only said yes, but my short response was transformed into several pages," he explained.

According to Momeni's attorney, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, the 28-year-old California State University student was conducting research concerning the status of women in Iran. Esha Momeni was arrested on October 15 for a driving violation.

MJ/CW/DT