Former Iranian President's Daughter Arrested For Supporting Protests

Shafaq News / Just days after expressing support for the protests in Iran, Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was arrested in the Iranian capital on unknown charges. The hard-line Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), reported on September 27 that Hashemi was arrested by security forces in east Tehran for “inciting riots,” but added that the alleged provocations failed to being people onto the streets. Before her arrest, Hashemi had said that authorities refer to the protests that have rocked the Islamic republic for the past 12 days as “riots” and “sedition” in order to suppress them. “What [authorities] want to convey is that these are not protests, they’re riots, but in fact they are protests,” Hashemi said in an audio recording obtained by RFE/RL’s Radio Farda. “Those who have seen the protests know that, for example, if the youth set fire to garbage cans, it’s because the [security forces] have used tear gas and they want to neutralize it; or when they beat a member of the security forces it’s because they have been attacked and they’re defending themselves,” she said in the recording. Hashemi said most of the protesters are young people who have been demanding rights in connection with “the issue of the hijab and the [establishment’s] Taliban-like view of women’s and social issues.” “It shows that our youth want a future, they want to have a life. They’re not trying to bring the regime down, although it can go that way,” she added. The protests across Iran were triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16 following her arrest by Tehran’s morality police for alleged “unsuitable attire.” Protesters have demanded women’s rights be respected while also calling for an end to the Islamic republic. Iranian security forces have responded with force, killing dozens of protesters and arresting several hundred. Officials have also imposed tough restrictions on the Internet. On the audio file obtained by Radio Farda earlier this week, Hashemi said the demands raised in the current protests are different from recent demonstrations that have focused on the deteriorating economy, which has been crushed by crippling U.S. sanctions. “For the past few years, demonstrators have raised demands in relation to [the economy] and their jobs, resulting in the belief that the people do not care about politics anymore. But the [current] protests show that impression was wrong,” she said. “These demands have always existed and they will remain. The younger generation is naturally alienated with the slogans and aims of the [Islamic] revolution.”

(RFERL)