Iran: RSF profiles cases of repression against women journalists since the death of Mahsa Amini

Press Release 9/16/24

On the second anniversary of the "Women, Life, Freedom" protest movement, spurred by the death of Mahsa Amini, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has compiled a list, which will be updated in real time, of repressive acts against Iran’s women journalists. Imprisoned and arbitrarily prosecuted, they are paying for their brave, persistent reporting with their freedom.

Without the work of Iran’s women journalists like Elaheh Mohammadi of Ham Mihan and Niloofar Hamedi of Shargh Daily, the world might never have known about the death of young Kurdish student Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, three days after her arrest for defying Iran’s strict hijab rules. 

The public might have believed the late Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, when he announced "there are no imprisoned journalists in Iran," if journalist Vida Rabbani had not written a letter from Qarshak Prison stating, “I am a journalist, and I am in prison.” Without the courageous work of women like Saeedeh Shafiei, Nasim Sultan Beigi, and Ghazaleh Zareim, the news and images of the "Women, Life, Freedom” movement – protests challenging Iran’s authoritarian regime which have been shaking the country since 2022 – would have never reached the Iranian public or the rest of the world. Then there is Narges Mohammadi, the writer and human rights advocate arrested on multiple occasions for her journalism and activism, who doggedly reports on the regime's ongoing persecution of women. 

Two years after the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement began, with over 100 journalists locked up or prosecuted since September 2022, RSF highlights cases of women journalists who remain prisoners of Iran's repressive judicial system, an institution directed by Supreme Guide Ayatollah Khamenei.

Vida Rabbani. Journalist for the reformist news media Sada Weekly, and activist