Nazila Maroufian Fired Due to Her Account of 'Special Forces Encounter' from Her Workplace

Nazila Maroufian, a journalist who was imprisoned for a period after interviewing Mahsa Amini's father, announced on Thursday in a series of tweets that she had been fired from the editorial team of a newspaper where she had recently started working. She states that she was dismissed after she publicly shared her account of the encounter with the Special Forces and the sexual harassment she faced regarding her optional hijab three days prior. On Sunday, Nazila Maroufian tweeted that an officer in Tatarshahr told her due to her lack of mandatory hijab: 'What kind of appearance is this, of course because |...| you dress like this.' Voice of America has omitted the sexual harassment part. In her recent tweet, Nazila Maroufian wrote that security pressures on her have increased solely because she is a 'protesting critic.' According to Ms. Maroufian, all of this is 'to crush a person or bring them to the brink of suicide, or to cut them off from the country and force them to flee. I am definitely a human being and I am being harassed, but as long as I am alive, I will write and stay in my country, no matter how alienated you make me feel.' Nazila Maroufian was arrested after publishing an interview with Mahsa Amini's father in early November 2022 and was released on bail after about 70 days in prison. Pressure on lawyers, civil activists, and journalists has been among the actions of the Islamic Republic authorities following the protests triggered by Mahsa Amini's death. Dozens of journalists have been arrested in recent months in Iran, some of whom, including Niloufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, remain in prison.