Arrest of Third Lawyer in Two Days

According to reports, one day after the arrest of Peyman Darafshan and Farakh Forouzan, two lawyers, Hedi Amid, another lawyer, has also been arrested. The Iran Human Rights Campaign Twitter and the Harana website reported that Hedi Amid, a lawyer and women's rights activist, was arrested at her home on Saturday morning, September 10. No reports have been published regarding the reason for her arrest or the agency that detained her. Hedi Amid had previously written in support of the campaign "Changing the Male Face of Parliament" which was launched before the tenth parliamentary elections to increase the number of female representatives in parliament. On Friday, September 9, Peyman Darafshan and Farakh Forouzan were arrested at the home of the family of Arash Kikhisravi, a jailed lawyer. Peyman Darafshan represents Arash Kikhisravi, who was arrested on Saturday, August 27, along with Qasem Sholeh-Sadi and Masoud Javadieh, two other lawyers, in front of the parliament. Qasem Sholeh-Sadi had announced in a video that he would attend the parliament in protest against the supervisory oversight, emulating Mohammad Mossadegh. Peyman Darafshan and Arash Kikhisravi also represent the family of Kavous Seyed Emami. Farakh Forouzan is a lawyer who works in the field of children's rights. Meanwhile, Abouzar Nasrollahi, another defense lawyer for Arash Kikhisravi, confirmed the reports regarding the arrests of Peyman Darafshan and Farakh Forouzan in an interview with the ISNA news agency on Saturday. Nasrin Sotoudeh, a lawyer, was also arrested on June 13. Ms. Sotoudeh has been on hunger strike since September 3 in protest against her arrest and the pressure on her family and relatives. In recent years, several lawyers, including Abdolfattah Soltani, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, Mohammad Seifzadeh, Mohammad Oliaei-Far, Mohammad Najafi, Sara Sabaghian, and Maryam Kian Arshi have been arrested, and some of them have been sentenced to long prison terms. Mostafa Daneshjou, another lawyer of Gonabadi Dervishes, was also arrested early on Sunday, July 8. Human Rights Watch on Friday, August 26, referring to other imprisoned human rights lawyers in Iran, including Narges Mohammadi and Abdolfattah Soltani, stated that the Ministry of Intelligence under Rouhani's government, despite trying to present itself as a more moderate security agency, is fundamentally part of the severe repression of the government against human rights defenders, similar to the IRGC intelligence organization.