Mahsa Amini: Woman journalist who took heartbreaking photo of grieving family 'arrested'

Mahsa Amini: Woman journalist who took heartbreaking photo of grieving family 'arrested'
Niloofar Hamedi had days earlier taken a photo of the grieving family of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who died after being arrested by Iranian morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab 'improperly'.
2 min read
22 September, 2022
Protests have raged since Mahsa Amini's death last Friday [AFP via Getty]

A journalist who posted a heart-wrenching photo of the grieving relatives of Mahsa Amini, the young woman who died after arrest by morality police in Tehran, has been detained by Iranian security forces, a lawyer claiming to represent her has announced.

Niloofar Hamedi, a journalist for Shargh newspaper, was arrested on Thursday morning, lawyer Mohammed Ali Kamfirouzi said.

Her home was raided and belongings seized, he added.

Reports of her detention follow a crackdown by Iranian security forces across the country on demonstrators angered by the death of Amini on Friday.

The 22-year-old Kurdish woman was detained by police in Tehran last week for allegedly wearing her headscarf in an "improper" way.

She went into a coma in detention and died at a hospital in the Iranian capital on Friday, allegedly after being beaten by police.

Hamedi posted to Twitter an image of Amini's father and grandmother as they embraced at the hospital where Amini died. The image was shared widely.

Shargh describes itself as an independent, reformist newspaper and regularly reports on violations by Iranian security forces.

At least 31 civilians have been killed in the crackdown on the protests, a Norway-based rights NGO said Thursday.

Photojournalist Yalda Moaiery was arrested by the Iranian security forces while covering the protests, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

Iran appears to have cut internet access and mobile phone reception in parts of the country in response to the unrest.