From the Liveblog of
Thursday, February 9, 2023
Iranian women activists chant pro-protest slogans after being freed from prison
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PARIS — Iran has released a number of prominent women activists and journalists from Tehran’s Evin prison, campaigners say, with video showing them defiantly chanting pro-protest slogans outside the jail.
Media based outside Iran says a total of seven women were released, while Iran continues to press a crackdown against protests that erupted in September.
They include campaigner Saba Kordafshari, held since 2019 after she campaigned against the obligatory hijab for women, and prominent photographer Alieh Motalebzadeh whose latest stint in jail began in April last year, the reports say.
After being released, they chanted the slogan of the protest movement “Woman, Life, Freedom” and also “down with oppressors worldwide,” according to a video posted by Motalebzadeh on her Twitter account.
https://twitter.com/a_motalebzadeh/status/1623476686569234435
The Dublin-based rights group Front Line Defenders says Kordafshari and Motalebzadeh “have played a pivotal role in the women’s rights movement and have been unjustly in prison in the past years.”
The others released are Fariba Asadi, Parastoo Moini, Zahra Safaei, Gelareh Abbasi and Sahereh Hossein, all campaigners who in some cases had been serving years-long sentences.
The Times of Israel Community.