Iranian journalist who broke news on Mahsa Amini pays heavy price

Niloofar Hamedi, an Iranian journalist specialising in women's rights, got away with hard-hitting stories for years - until the day she took a photo of Mahsa Amini's parents hugging each other in a Tehran hospital where their daughter was lying in a coma.

The photo, which Hamedi posted on Twitter on Sept. 16, was the first sign to the world that all was not well with 22-year-old Amini, who had been detained three days earlier by Iran's morality police for what they deemed inappropriate dress.

Amini's death later that day would unleash a wave of mass protests across Iran that were still persisting nearly three weeks later in different parts of the country, despite a government crackdown.

The photo of Amini's parents was also one of the last things Hamedi, who worked for the pro-reform Sharq daily, would post before she was arrested some days later and her Twitter account listed as suspended.

"This morning, intelligence agents raided my client Niloofar Hamedi's house, arrested her, searched her house, and confiscated her belongings," Hamedi's lawyer Mohammad Ali Kamfirouzi tweeted on Sept. 22.

Hamedi has not been charged and is being held in solitary confinement in Iran's Evin prison, he wrote.

At least 185 people, including 19 minors, have been killed, hundreds injured and thousands have been arrested by security forces, according to rights groups. The Iranian government says more than 20 security forces have been killed and that it will investigate civilian deaths.

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, including Hamedi.

Friends of Hamedi described her as a brave journalist who is passionate about women's issues and rights.

• MENA