Jailed Iranian Women Journalists Restricted from Outside Contact after Protest

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has strongly condemned punitive measures imposed on three female journalists incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin prison after they chanted slogans about "unfair sentences" during a visit by high-ranking judicial officials late last month.

Following the December 27 protest action, journalists Elahe Mohammadi, Niloofar Hamedi and Nasim Sultanbeigi, among other women prisoners, were deprived of making phone calls and having visits for a month, the IFJ said in a statement on January 9.

The women detainees were also “threatened by prison authorities, who may also bring forward additional charges and relocate them to remote prisons,” it said.

According to the group, nine journalists are currently held unfairly in Iranian prison.

Sultanbeigi, Mohammadi and Hamedi are among dozens of journalists who were unlawfully arrested during nationwide protests sparked by the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody. 

Mohammadi and Hamedi were handed prison sentences totalling 12 and 13 years in prison, respectively, for their coverage of Amini's death. 

Sultanbeigi is serving a prison sentence of three years and seven months.