Nazila Maroofian, an Iranian journalist who was arrested four times in the past year, left for France after receiving death threats.
"I was forced to leave my homeland. I wanted to seek refuge in a country that upholds human rights, where I can share my experiences and those of people like me and my colleagues," Maroofian said in an emotional Instagram video posted on October 10.
Maroofian had bruises around one of her eyes which the journalist said were inflicted during her 15-day incarceration in Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah prison, near the Iranian border.
She also said she had received death threats from the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic.
Maroofian was initially arrested in November 2022 following the publication of an interview with the father of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody sparked months of nationwide protests.
In September, Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced her to one year in prison on the charge of "propaganda against the system."
Maroofian revealed in her Instagram video that after her temporary release from her latest arrest, she and her family were summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence.
There, an intelligence agent looked into her mother's eyes and declared, "Your daughter is going to be killed."
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