Iran’s clerical rulers are seeking to crack down on the ongoing demonstrations across the country. The country’s security forces have arrested a woman with alleged links to a UK-based television broadcaster.
Iranian security forces Thursday arrested a woman, Elham Afkari, for her alleged connections to a London-based broadcaster that Tehran has accused of fomenting the unrest. Afkari was charged with communicating and transmitting information to the broadcaster and was arrested before she was to leave the country, according to the semi-official Fars news outlet. Afkari was accused of being an agent of the Iran International broadcaster.
State media published photos of Afkari’s arrest, showing her blindfolded and seated at the back of a vehicle. However, rights activists refuted the state media report, saying that Afkari was not trying to leave the country and was arrested by the authorities in her hometown of Shiraz.
“Recently, the agent carried out numerous activities and actions in slandering the Islamic Republic, inviting youth to riot and creating terror among the people,” said the news outlet.
Iranian intelligence minister Esmail Khatib Tuesday called the broadcaster a “terrorist” organization.
Afkari’s arrest comes amidst widespread protests all over Iran, with other countries holding demonstrations in shows of solidarity. The protests were sparked by the death of a Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the morality police for flouting the Islamic Republic’s dress code on women. Women and students played a major role in the demonstrations, while Tehran has blamed local agents of its enemies, the United States and Israel, for the unrest.
Dozens of protesters have been killed by the crackdown of security forces. Prominent Iranians have also spoken out in support of the protests calling for the fall of the clerical regime in what would be the biggest show of opposition to the government since the 1979 Revolution.
Top Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti recently shared a photo of herself without her headscarf in support of the protests. The actress – known for her role in the 2017 Academy Award film “The Salesman” – was shown holding up a sign which read “Woman, Life, Freedom,” in Kurdish – a popular slogan in the protests.