Iranian Female Journalists Facing Imprisonment and Torture Amidst Media Crackdown: The Disturbing Reality

And published British newspaper “The Guardian”. Samples of the “chilling” messages that have reached Iranian women journalists recently, including a message telling a young journalist: “We are at your sister’s house to rape her.” The journalist, whose name was published in the newspaper, indicated that the source of the letter was members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who had interrogated her earlier after her arrest during her participation in a protest demonstration last year.

The newspaper quoted a journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, that she feared for her life, explaining that she was arrested for 3 days and released on charges of covering popular protests following the death of Amini (22 years old). She added that members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard sent her many times death threats, such as the demonstrators who were brutally killed while participating in protests that posed the biggest challenge to the Iranian regime in decades.

Another journalist said that she had received messages warning her not to cover the demonstrations, and asked her not to conduct any press interviews with the families of the victims and those injured in the recent Iranian events. Journalists in general said they faced brutal beatings, threats, and imprisonment for reporting on the Iranian protests.

The fact is that about 40% of the journalists arrested in Iran during the past seven months were women, according to the statistics of the “Reporters Without Borders” organization, which is based in Paris. Journalists in Iran say that the brutality practiced by the regime focused on targeting journalists and citizen journalists, of both sexes, to stop broadcasting pictures and reports on what is happening in the country on social media.

A female journalist said that bloggers and citizen journalists often filled the void created by official censorship. “All the videos and photos published during the protests were from these citizen journalists, not from the official media,” she added.

The Iranian government was cautious in dealing with prominent journalists and media professionals or those active with international media, but “fearing an international reaction”, in return it focused its harassment on obscure journalists and severely punished citizen journalists and bloggers.