Iranian security forces arrested Kurdish Iranian journalist Nazila Maroofian on November 3, 2022.
Maroofian is an investigative reporter covering issues in her hometown Saqqez, in Iran’s Kurdistan province, for the state-run news website Rouydad24.
Prior to her arrest, she also reported for state-run Moshtagel Online and interviewed an Iranian official about protests following the September 16 death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, after morality police arrested her for allegedly violating the country’s conservative dress law.
The exile-run Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that the journalist was arrested at a friend’s home in Tehran and immediately sent to solitary confinement in ward 209 of Evin Prison. According to the report, she was permitted to make a brief call to her family and inform them of her arrest; she said she is not aware of any charges facing her.
CPJ was unable to determine the status of her health in prison.
Authorities arrested dozens of journalists as the protests over Amini’s death spread across the country. Several of them were later released on bail.
CPJ emailed Iran’s mission to the United Nations in late 2022 for comment on the cases of imprisoned Iranian journalists but received no response.