Iran rearrests reporter who interviewed father of headscarf protest icon

PARIS, France (AFP) — Iranian authorities have rearrested a journalist who interviewed the father of the woman whose custody death sparked months of protests, just two days after her release from jail, activists said on Tuesday.

Nazila Maroufian walked out of Tehran’s Evin prison on Sunday, posting on social media a picture of herself without a headscarf in defiance of the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.

“Don’t accept slavery, you deserve the best!” she wrote in her posts.

But she has now been detained again and moved outside of Tehran to Qarchak women’s prison, whose conditions are repeatedly criticized by rights groups, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said.

The group, which collates information from activists, said it had confirmed her rearrest with a source close to the family.

Maroufian, whose age is given by Persian media outside Iran as 23, in October published an interview on the Mostaghel Online news site with Amjad Amini.

He is the father of Mahsa Amini, 22. Her death in custody last September 16 after she allegedly violated the dress rules sparked months of protests.

Nazila Maroufian was released from prison just an hour ago. Her "crime"? Interviewing the father of Gina Mahsa Amini. Unveiled, she captured a photo and courageously posted on her Instagram, “Don't accept slavery, because you deserve the best.” #WomanLifeFreedom pic.twitter.com/Fj67VGXpuU

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— Masih Alinejad ????️ (@AlinejadMasih) August 13, 2023

In the interview, Amjad Amini accused authorities of lying about the circumstances of his daughter’s death.

Iranian authorities have indicated she died because of a health problem, but the family and activists have said she suffered a blow to the head while in custody.

Echoes of another case

Maroufian, a Tehran-based journalist from Amini’s hometown of Saqez in Kurdistan province, was first arrested in November.

She was later released but in January said she had been sentenced to two years in jail, suspended for five years, on charges of propaganda against the system and spreading false news.

According to rights groups, Maroufian was again ordered back to Evin prison in early July.

Her rapid return to prison after posting defiant images upon her release on Sunday recalls the case of labor activist Sepideh Gholian.

#SepidehQolian was supposed to have gone to court today. She was charged with “Acting against the Islamic Republic”. The regime agents demanded that she cover her hair but she refused so her court hearing was canceled. She chose to stay in prison rather than obey a sharia law.… pic.twitter.com/ypRUNlYOp4

— Masih Alinejad ????️ (@AlinejadMasih) July 19, 2023

In March, Gholian was re-arrested hours after she walked free from jail bare-headed and chanting slogans against Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Gholian, one of the most prominent female activists detained in Iran, remains in prison.

Iran has reacted harshly to reporting inside the country on the Amini case.

The two women journalists who helped bring the story to the world’s attention have now spent almost a year in Evin prison after their arrest in September.

Niloufar Hamedi reported for Iran’s Shargh newspaper from the hospital where Amini languished in a coma for three days before she died, and Elahe Mohammadi, a reporter for the Ham Mihan newspaper, went to Saqez to report on Amini’s funeral.

Both are now on trial on charges of violating national security, which they vehemently deny.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, 95 reporters were arrested in the crackdown on the Amini protests, although most have now been released on bail.

The crackdown left hundreds dead, mainly demonstrators but also security personnel.