For the Incarcerated Parents

Iranian security forces detained a three-year-old girl along with her mother during a raid at their home on August 16. 

The toddler, named Afra, remained in custody with her mother Narges Sardari for several hours until her grandmother was summoned at the prosecutor's office.

Afra’s father, theater actor Mehdi Etemad Saeed, has been languishing behind bars since June.

Flagging concerns over her husband’s whereabouts and the suffering of her daughter, Sardari had taken to Instagram to demand his release.

Sardari revealed that two weeks after the arrest of her husband, security agents searched their home and confiscated her mobile phone. 

Later, she was allowed to talk to him over the phone for "one minute."

"They didn't even allow me to hear his voice. They insisted on handing the phone to Afra so that Mehdi could speak. I do not know how long I need to plead for Afra to hear Mahdi's voice once again," she wrote.

Etemad Saeed was arrested in front of her daughter on June 9.

The actor was apprehended by plainclothes men in Tehran's Laleh Park during a play therapy session with a group of children.