Since the uprising in Iran began on September 16, Iranian authorities have arrested 51 journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Thirteen were released on bail and are awaiting trial today. Among the journalists still behind bars, Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi find themselves in a particularly worrying situation.
In a joint statement from the Revolutionary Guards, the country’s ideological army, and the Ministry of Intelligence – the two main secret services in Iran – the two young Iranian women were accused of spying for the Americans. In particular, they are accused of having “provoked relatives” by Mahsa Amini, among others. The statement, issued on October 28, said the ongoing protests in Iran were the result of a conspiracy by “secret services of foreign countries”.
Niloufar Hamedi, aged 31, was one of the first journalists to go to Kasra hospital in Tehran, where Mahsa Amini was hospitalized, having fallen into a coma after being released from police custody for his clothes judged “non-compliant” by the morality police. The death of this 22-year-old Iranian, of Kurdish origin, has provoked an unprecedented wave of protest in Iran which continues in universities. It has already claimed at least 287 civilian victims, including 46 children, according to Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
wave of support
Working for the reformist daily Shargh, Niloufar Hamedi had notably published on his Twitter account the photo of the parents of Mahsa Amini hugging in the corridor of the hospital. Elaheh Mohammadi, she covered, on September 18, the burial of the young woman in Saqqez, her hometown, in Iranian Kurdistan (west). His report was published in “one” of the daily Hammihan. The two women were arrested a few days later in Tehran. They have since been held in the notorious prison of Evin, located in the north of the capital. In Iran, espionage is punishable by up to ten years in prison.
The direct questioning of these two journalists by the Iranian secret services provoked an unprecedented wave of support. The Commission of Iranian Journalists, which condemned the treatment reserved for journalists and in particular their two colleagues, proposed a radical solution to the Iranian authorities: under current conditions, it would be better “ban journalism”.
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