Female journalist jailed for interviewing Mahsa Amini’s father
23-year-old Nazila Maroofian from Saqqez, Kurdistan province, is an investigative reporter covering issues in her hometown.
Journalist Nazila Maroofian, who was detained after conducting an interview with Mahsa Amini's father and fired from her position amid intensified pressure on media workers in Iran, has been remanded in custody.
Maroofian was among a number of Iranian journalists arrested while covering Mahsa Amini's death in September 2022. A court case was later initiated against her.
On Tuesday, July 4, 2023, Nazila Maroofian, who is originally from Saqqez but resides in Tehran, published a Twitter post in which she said, “Officials from the Ministry of Intelligence have searched my house and confiscated some of my digital devices, including my mobile phone and laptop.”
Summoned to the notorious Evin Prison, Maroofian was remanded in custody and sentenced to 2 years in prison and 15 million Iranian Toman for “producing propaganda against the state” and “publishing lies with the intention of disrupting the public mind.”
Nazila Maroofian, a student at Tehran’s Allameh Tabatabai University and a reporter for Rouydad 24, was arrested on October 30, 2022, by order of the Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office based in Evin Prison in Tehran. She was arrested for publishing her interviews with the father of Mahsa Amini on the Event 24 website in October and November 2022. She was confined in Ward 209 of Evin. She was eventually transferred to Qarchak Prison and released on bail of 6 billion Iranian rials after a while.
Before being arrested, Nazila Maroofian wrote in a Twitter post, “They won’t let me publish my interview a few days ago with Mahsa Amini’s father. First, they called my father in the city… then they called me to say that there was a warrant for my arrest. If you publish it, you will be sent to Evin on such and such charges!” Nazila Maroofian also worked as a reporter in Dideban-e Iran.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a media freedom NGO, Iranian authorities have arrested at least 95 journalists since September 2022, when the death in morality police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini sparked nationwide protests.
