Niloofar Hamedi has been in jail since 22 September. She broke the story of Mahsa Amini on 16 September, hours after which the woman died. Image courtesy: @Kamfirouzi/Twitter
It’s not easy being a woman in Iran. It’s even more difficult if you have anything to do with Mahsa Amini, the 21-year-old who died after being detained by Iran’s morality police for “inappropriate” dressing, triggering intense protests across the country and the world. So you can imagine the plight of Niloofar Hamedi who broke the news of Amini’s death.
Niloofar Hamedi, the ‘voice of the voiceless’
Hamedi is an Iranian journalist who works for the reformist daily newspaper Shargh and writes extensively on women’s rights. Her investigative reports address issues like self-immolation among women and domestic abuse.
She has written about the Gasht-e Ershad, the country’s “morality police” and how they enforced the mandatory headscarf laws. Before the death of Amini, she reported on the shooting of a former member of Iran’s national boxing team by the “morality police”. She also interviewed the family of Sepideh Rashno, an Iranian writer and artist, who was arrested in July for defying the Islamic dress code, reports the news agency Reuters.
“She (Hamedi) always went beyond her limit to be the voice of voiceless women who were deprived from their rights, whether by their fathers, husbands or by social limitations,” one friend of hers told Reuters, for fear of reprisals.
Breaking the news of Amini
On 16 September, Hamedi got access to the hospital in Tehran where Amini was receiving treatment after being detained by Gasht-e Ershad. The authorities said that the Kurdish woman suffered a sudden heart attack, a claim disputed by her parents.
Hamedi posted a picture of Mahsa Amini’s parents from a hospital in Tehran. Now the journalist’s Twitter account has been suspended. Image courtesy: Niloofar Hamedi/Twitter
Hamedi tweeted a picture of the parents weeping in the hospital, where Amini was lying in a coma. This was proof that not all was well with the young woman. Later that day, Amini breathed her last and her death led to mass demonstrations across Iran, which continue until today.
The story of Amini was one of the last ones that Hamedi reported. Then, the harassment began.
Also read: Explained: Who is 16-yr-old Nika Shakarami, the latest symbol of Iran protests?
Hamedi’s arrest
It started with the suspension of Hamedi’s Twitter account, where she posted the photo of Amini’s parents. Then security forces raided the journalist’s house, searched her belongings and arrested her on 22 September.
“This morning, security agents raided the house of my client Niloofar Hamedi, journalist of Shargh newspaper, arrested her, searched her house and confiscated her belongings,” wrote her lawyer Mohammad Ali Kamfirouzi on Twitter.
According to him, the journalist has been kept in solitary confinement in Iran’s Evin prison, where she was interrogated. No charges have been filed against her or she has not been informed about them yet.
Hamedi not alone
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Iranian authorities to”immediately and unconditionally release … all journalists arrested because of their coverage of Mahsa Amini’s death and the protests that have followed”. It said last month that at least 28 journalists had been detained by the security forces.
It’s a tough job to be a scribe in Iran, especially if you are working with a reformist newspaper.
“Journalism in Iran is not a job. It is a potential crime from the point of view of security institutions,” Hamidi’s colleague Sima told Middle East Eye.”As a result, as I am talking to you right now, I am worried that these conversations will be overheard.”
“We hope Hamedi returns to the office. Put her bag on the table, … write about the deprived and anonymous women who are victims of prejudice in Iran,” wrote her editor Shahrzad Hemmati on 11 October, according to Reuters.
Demonstrators hold placards outside the Iranian Embassy in London. As anti-government protests roil cities and towns in Iran for a fourth week, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, tens of thousands of Iranians living abroad have marched on the streets of Europe, North America and beyond. AP
Press freedom in Iran
Iran is one of the world’s ten worst countries for press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index, and it remains one of the most repressive ones for journalists.
Also read: Hijab must in Iran, burqa banned in France: Countries that dictate what women should wear
Article 24 of the constitution guarantees press freedom, but the 1986 press law (amended in 2000 and 2009 to take account of online publications) allows the authorities to ensure that journalists do not “endanger the Islamic Republic”, “do not offend the clergy and the Supreme Leader” and do not “spread false information”.
CPJ senior researcher Yeganeh Rezaian told the Middle East Eye that Iran is “the world’s biggest jailer” of women reporters.
She was jailed with her husband and Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, in Iran in 2014. Although she was released after 72 days, Jason would remain in prison until January 2016.
With inputs from agencies
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