September 2022. A video begins to go viral: a young woman collapses at the train station and the authorities put her in a truck. People begin to talk about it and, without having much more information than the speculation that runs through social networks, indignation and questions about what is happening with that young woman fill the streets. In the absence of an official investigation and any statement from the Government, journalists begin to investigate what happened and find the story: they have killed a young woman simply for not wearing the veil that did not cover her hair enough, and have been made by members of the Police. A scandal. Who is the murdered young woman? Who has ended his life? Why this commotion? Nilufar Hamedi, journalist of the reformist newspaper ‘Shargh’, writes the first story about the detention of Mahsa Amini, the young Kurdish woman arrested by the Iranian Moral Police, accused of not wearing the veil properly according to the rules of the Islamic republic. Hamedi was the first to report Amini’s arrest, as well as her subsequent death in police custody while she was hospitalized. She was also the first to publish a photo of Amini in the hospital, when she was in a coma, and an image of the young woman’s parents in the hallway of the health center upon hearing the news that their daughter had died. Related News standard Yes Israel warned Iran before launching its air operation against military positions Mikel Ayestaran | Correspondent in Istanbul According to Israeli and American intelligence, the attack “crippled Iran’s ability to produce long-range ballistic missiles in a blow from which it will be difficult to recover”Cold-blooded murderAmini was leaving a subway station in Tehran with members of his family when she was arrested by the Morality Police for alleged failure to comply with the country’s mandatory hijab rules, which have been in force since shortly after Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979. She was put in a van and taken to a call ‘re-education center’ where women receive guidance on how to dress appropriately. Surveillance camera footage released by Iranian security forces shows how she collapsed while there and was taken to a hospital, where she died days later. Iranian authorities said she suffered a stroke due to pre-existing conditions, but her parents contradicted that version, saying that she could have been beaten. Hamedi told all this in his reports. According to an investigation by the Independent International Mission on Iran of the UN Human Rights Council, the death of the 22-year-old Kurdish girl was “caused by physical violence in the custody of the state authorities. Thousands of people, especially women, took to the streets around the world. But their eyes were on Tehran, capital of the Islamic republic, where despite knowing that the mere fact of demonstrating can lead to strong punishment by the Police, they continue ahead. The point of greatest concentration occurs on the day of Amini’s funeral, where hundreds of people accompany the family and the young woman’s coffin. Elahe Mohammadi, a journalist for the newspaper ‘Hamminhan’, covers the funeral in the city of Saqez, in the Kurdistan, where the protests began and the first scarves were burned on September 17, 2022. Both Elahe and Nilufar fulfilled their duty as journalists: to tell a story that was challenging the ‘status quo’ of the Islamic republic like never before . But the consequences were terrible. At least 500 people were murdered in the context of the demonstrations and more than 80 journalists imprisoned and persecuted.No freedom of the pressIn the regime of the ayatollahs, freedom of the press does not exist, much less if you are a woman. An Iranian court sentenced the two journalists to seven years (for Nilufar Hamedi) and six years (for Elahe Mohammadi), for cooperation with the “hostile” US government. The charges did not stop there: they were accused of ” collusion against national security”, with a sentence of five years, and dissemination of propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran, with one year in prison. The court also banned them from working for the media, from joining political parties and from using social networks for two years. In total, the two communicators were sentenced to 13 and 12 years in prison. Niloofar Hamidi and Elaheh Mohammadi They served 17 months of sentences, after paying bail of 185,000 euros. But one day after their release, judicial authorities announced their intention to prosecute Hamedi and Mohammadi for appearing in public without their heads covered. Although they posted bail, they still had charges to continue serving time for. A couple of weeks ago, after months of appeals, an Iranian court acquitted them of collaborating with the United States and they will finally have to serve five years in prison. Iranian human rights organizations indicated that the case against both reporters could not be remain there and demanded their immediate and unconditional release by complying with the terms of the general amnesty, declared by the country’s supreme leader, to a good part of those detained for their involvement in the massive protests who were not convicted of a blood crime.« The execution of this new prison sentence is an example of a clear violation of the general amnesty order and this case must be closed,” a spokesperson for Mohammadi told the newspaper where she worked. At the end of the court hearing last year, both journalists denied all charges and defended their work to “give a voice to the Iranian people, and were proud to do so.”
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