Bahman Dar al-Shafa'i, Iranian Journalist and Translator, Arrested

News reports from Iran indicate that Bahman Dar al-Shafa'i, an Iranian journalist and translator, was arrested on Wednesday morning, February 14, at his residence in Tehran. According to the website Kalemeh, which is close to Mir Hossein Mousavi, the agency that arrested this translator and editor is not specified, but the officers who came to arrest him had a search and arrest warrant from Branch 2 of the Sacred Prosecutor's Office of Evin. Based on this report, the arresting officers did not announce the reason for the arrest of Mr. Dar al-Shafa'i, and there is no information about his place of detention. Bahman Dar al-Shafa'i was a collaborator with BBC Persian for a period, but two years ago he returned to Iran after ending his collaboration with this media outlet and has not had any journalistic activities since then, shifting his work focus to book editing and translation. The documentary film 'Fridays of Farhad', which looked at the works and artistic and social life of Farhad Mehrad, a famous Iranian singer, was among Bahman Dar al-Shafa'i's activities during his collaboration with BBC, which was broadcast by this network's television. Although his return to Tehran did not lead to his arrest, it was accompanied by long and repeated interrogations. Over the past two years, Bahman Dar al-Shafa'i has translated and published four books in collaboration with Mahai Publishing, and his fifth book is also in the process of publication. Before emigrating from Iran and joining BBC Persian, he worked with various newspapers and publications, including as a journalist for Hamshahri, Shargh, Etemad Melli, and the publication Chelcheragh. His cousin, Yashar Dar al-Shafa'i, a former student activist with leftist tendencies, was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to five and a half years in prison for charges of conspiracy to disrupt national security and insulting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the then president. Yashar Dar al-Shafa'i is currently serving his sentence in Evin prison. The father, sister, and other family members of the Dar al-Shafa'i family have also experienced arrest and interrogation in recent years. Reporters Without Borders recently published a report criticizing the state of freedom of expression in Iran and the pressure on Iranian journalists, naming Iran as the third-largest prison for journalists in the world. In this context, there are disagreements between the investigator and the prosecutor regarding the charges against two imprisoned journalists, criticism from Reporters Without Borders regarding the arrest of journalists ahead of elections, and the confirmation of a one-year prison sentence for Reyhaneh Tabatabai.