Iranian journalist who broke news on Mahsa Amini pays heavy price

Sharq journalist Niloofar Hamedi, who took the photo of Mahsa Amini’s parents embracing after learning their daughter had died, has been arrested.WANA NEWS AGENCY/Reuters

Niloofar Hamedi, an Iranian journalist specializing in women’s rights, got away with hard-hitting stories for years – until the day she took a photograph of Mahsa Amini’s parents hugging each other in a Tehran hospital where their daughter was lying in a coma.

The photo, which Hamedi posted on Twitter on Sept. 16, was the first sign to the world that all was not well with 22-year-old Amini, who had been detained three days earlier by Iran’s morality police for what they deemed inappropriate dress.

Amini’s death later that day would unleash a wave of mass protests across Iran that were still persisting nearly three weeks later in different parts of the country, despite a government crackdown.

The photo of Amini’s parents was also one of the last things Hamedi, who worked for the pro-reform Sharq daily, would post before she was arrested some days later and her Twitter account listed as suspended.

“This morning, intelligence agents raided my client Niloofar Hamedi