Quality Of Life: Iran jails 2 journalists who covered hijab death row, for ‘collaborating with US’

A court in Iran sentenced two journalists to up to seven years in prison for collaborating with the US government and other charges, local reports said on Sunday. Both women have been imprisoned for over a year following their coverage of the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody in September 2022. The sentencing can be appealed within 20 days.
The two journalists, Niloufar Hamedi, who broke the news of Amini’s death for wearing her headscarf too loose, and Elaheh Mohammadi, who wrote about her funeral, were sentenced to seven and six years in prison, respectively, the judiciary news website Mizan reported on Sunday. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the decision to sentence the two journalists and reiterated its call for their immediate release. The Tehran Revolutionary Court had charged the journalists with allegedly collaborating with the hostile American government, colluding against national security and propaganda against the system.
While nearly 100 journalists were arrested amid the demonstrations, Hamedis and Mohammadi’s reporting was crucial in the days after Amini’s death to spread the word about the anger that followed. Their detentions have sparked international criticism over the security force crackdown that lasted months after Amini’s death.