It was a chilling warning from government agents. A young female journalist based in Tehran recounted the calls and messages she had received: “It said they were at my sister’s place and were there to rape her.”
These were the same agents from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) who had interrogated her after she had attended one of the nationwide protests that erupted last year after the death in custody of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Jina Amini, who was arrested for wearing her headscarf improperly and then reportedly beaten into a coma.
Ahead of the expected trial this week of two female journalists, who were among the first to report on the death of Amini, reporters in Iran have described the violent beatings, threats and imprisonment they have faced for reporting on protests in the country.
