Iran arrests Italian journalist

[strawberry]

copied from:
https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/other/ir ... r-AA1wAAiH


Iran arrests Italian journalist
Story by Sabrina Penty
2024/12/28

An Italian journalist has been arrested in Iran and thrown into solitary confinement after she released a podcast episode about a woman who had rejected her conservative values.

Cecilia Sala, 29, who works for Il Foglio newspaper and podcast company Chora Media has been under arrest for the past week after she was detained by police in Tehran on December 19.

The foreign ministry has said Sala's case was being followed with 'utmost attention' and revealed that Rome's ambassador in Tehran, Paola Amadei, had visited the journalist to check on her detention conditions.

She is reportedly been allowed to make two phone calls to her family.

'Italy is working tirelessly to free her, pursuing every option,' Defence Minister Guido Crosetto - a key figure in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government - wrote on the social media platform X, calling the arrest 'unacceptable'.

Chora Media said Sala had left Rome for Iran on December 12 with a valid journalist visa and had conducted several interviews and produced three episodes of her 'Stories' podcast.

She had been due to fly back to Rome on December 20.

The last three episodes of Sala's podcast featured an Iranian female comedian, a former military commander and a young woman who has rejected her conservative values.

Sala's employer added that she was being held in solitary confinement in Tehran's Evin prison and no reason had been given for her arrest.

There was no immediate confirmation of the arrest by Iranian officials.

Italian sources with knowledge of the matter said she was 'very tired' but 'physically fine'.

Chora said news of Sala's arrest was not immediately made public as her family and Italian authorities had hoped that keeping it quiet could help secure her swift release.

It was not clear whether it might be linked to tensions between Rome and Tehran after Iran last week summoned a senior Italian diplomat and the Swiss ambassador, who represents U.S. interests in the country, over the arrest of two Iranian nationals. One of the men was arrested in Italy at Washington's request.

Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left opposition Democratic Party, urged the government to act swiftly.

'We immediately call on the government to take every useful initiative to shed light on this matter, to clarify the reasons for this detention and, above all, to bring Cecilia Sala back to Italy as soon as possible,' she said.

Her arrest comes shortly after Iranian authorities arrested a female singer who refused to wear a hijab while singing in a virtual concert on YouTube.

Parastoo Ahmady, 27, was arrested in Sari City, the capital of the northern province of Mazandaran, earlier this month.

The judiciary had filed a case regarding Ahmady's concert performance, in which she performed wearing a long black sleeveless and collarless dress, but no hijab. She was accompanied by four male musicians.

Ahmady had posted her concert on YouTube the day before, saying: 'I am Parastoo, a girl who wants to sing for the people I love. This is a right I could not ignore; singing for the land I love passionately.'

The online concert has been viewed more than 1.4 million times in a twenty-seven-minute video which was posted last week.

Her lawyer said they don't know what charges have been filed, who arrested her or where she is.

He also said two musicians in Ahmady's band - Soheil Faghih Nasiri and Ehsan Beiraghdar - were arrested in Tehran on Saturday.

Panahipour said: 'Unfortunately, we do not know the charges against Ms Ahmady, who arrested her, or her place of detention, but we will follow up on the matter through legal authorities.'

Comments on the singer's YouTube video - which is a platform banned in Iran - praised her bravery and voice, with many saying they were moved to tears.

Some hailed her as 'the woman of freedom' and one said: 'This is beyond art. It is a historical movement and a symbol of resistance against restrictions.'

Her lawyer said Tehran later bowed to calls for her release, in a sign of the regime's growing nervousness over protests.

Tehran-based activist Hossein Ronaghi called her arrest as 'repression' and urged people to protest the 'exclusion of women from music'.

Women are not allowed to sing by themselves in public in Iran.

It follows the introduction of a newer and harsher 'Hijab and chastity' bill which was approved by Iranian Parliament earlier this month.

This means that all women - including girls as young as 12 - must wear a hijab or face strict punishments.

Sanctions range from fines to 15 years in prison, to even the death penalty under the charge of 'corruption on earth'.

It also brings a stricter level of surveillance to monitor women and ensure they are complying. It applies to women both in public spaces and online.