Ayatollah Khamenei. Image Credit: Tasnim News, CC BY 4.0.
Iranian authorities have arrested three female journalists in recent days, local media reported on Monday.
The arrests came amid months of protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
Iran has been rocked by protests since the death on 16 September of Amini, a 22-year-old woman of Kurdish heritage who had been arrested by morality police for allegedly breaching the country’s strict dress code for women.
Authorities say hundreds of people, including some members of state security forces, have died in the protests, while thousands more have been arrested in what the regime called “riots” incited by the Islamic Republic’s “enemies”.
“In the past 48 hours, at least three female journalists, namely Melika Hashemi, Saideh Shafiei and Mehrnoush Zarei, have been arrested in Tehran”, the reformist newspaper Etemed quoted the Tehran journalists’ union as saying.
The paper said the three women had been transferred to the notorious Evin prison, where many of those arrested in connection with anti-regime activity are held.
Some 80 journalists are thought to have been arrested in the latest round of protests since September.
No details were given regarding the justification for the three arrests.
