Iranian state media said that security forces arrested Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, on Tuesday, on charges of inciting riots in the east of the country.
“Fezeh Hashemi was arrested in eastern Tehran by a security apparatus for inciting rioters to protests in the streets,” the Tasnim news agency reported.
Hashemi’s arrest came, on Tuesday, on the twelfth day of protests demanding more personal rights and freedom, following the death of the young woman, Mahsa Amini, who was detained by the morality police, following her arrest for violating the rules of veil and modest clothing in the country.
Hashemi, a former lawmaker and women’s rights activist who has faced previous confrontations with law enforcement authorities in the Islamic Republic, is an outspoken critic of the system of government there.
In July, she was charged with propaganda activities once morest the country and blasphemy in social media comments, the judiciary said at the time.
Hashemi reportedly said Iran’s demand to remove the Revolutionary Guards from the US terror list was “harming” the country’s “national interests,” according to media reports at the time.
Hashemi also made separate comments regarding Khadija, the wife of the Prophet Muhammad.
Ms. Khadija was reportedly described as a “businesswoman”, which indicates that women can also engage in economic activity. She also said that the messenger spent her money.
Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency stated that the comments were “a joke…with no intention of causing an insult.”
In 2012, Hashemi was sentenced to six months in prison for “propaganda once morest the Islamic Republic”.