Social Media Users Demand Freedom for Detained Protest Couple in Tehran

Following over six weeks of uncertainty regarding Amirhossein Mousavi and Shabnam Hosseinzadeh, the protesting couple arrested by the Islamic Republic's intelligence agents in late Azar, users on X launched a "Twitter storm" demanding their release. Meanwhile, a source close to the couple told Voice of America that Ms. Hosseinzadeh was released in recent days but is "very unwell." According to this informed source, although "interrogation has ended," the Islamic Republic's intelligence officials are attempting to use the opportunity of uncertainty about them to "identify anonymous users" by creating doubt among the public. The source emphasized that "our silence means aiding in the capture of others," warning that "after the arrest of protesting citizens, if the authorities gain access to their social media accounts, they will use them for governmental purposes and to create suspicion about the identity of some opposition users active on social media." With the continued uncertainty regarding the status of Amirhossein Mousavi and his wife Shabnam Hosseinzadeh, several users on social media insist that both remain in detention. During the virtual storm supporting Amirhossein Mousavi and Shabnam Hosseinzadeh on the evening of Sunday, Bahman 7, Tehran time, Nasser Khushnevis, a political activist, drew users' attention to this online campaign, writing on X: "Let us be the voice of the innocent in captivity." Some users, pointing to the "continuation of the couple's detention," have called for media attention to the nameless detainees and emphasized that there should be no "silence in the face of the arrest of these citizens who are under torture and at risk of death in solitary confinement." Among them, Mohammad Heydari, a political activist, stated: "We should not give the regime [Islamic Republic] the opportunity to keep any prisoner anonymous. The regime exerts tremendous pressure on the anonymous ones." In recent days, a significant number of users on social media have shared images of Amirhossein Mousavi and Shabnam Hosseinzadeh, a couple residing in the Chitgar area of Tehran, emphasizing that they were arrested "without reason" by the Islamic Republic's intelligence agencies. Civil and human rights activists stress that no information has been released regarding the status of these two detained protesters, and the Islamic Republic's "crimes" against them continue "in silence." According to previous reports, this protesting couple, arrested in late Azar this year in Tehran, has been pressured in solitary confinement at one of the Islamic Republic's intelligence agencies, and the pressure on them continues. The account "Ekbataneh Town," which has been following events related to protesters in western Tehran since the nationwide protests of 1401, first warned that "Amirhossein Mousavi and his wife Shabnam Hosseinzadeh" are under detention by an Islamic Republic intelligence agency in ignorance, and due to the "heavy pressures" that the government's intelligence forces have exerted on "the lawyer of this case and the family" of these detained citizens, no news has been published about them. Previously, Reza Shafakhah, a lawyer, reported the arrest of an active user with a pseudonym on X on December 28 along with his wife but did not mention the names and details of this detained couple. It should also be noted that the arrest of opposition users who operate under pseudonyms on social media has occurred multiple times before. For instance, Shahabeddin Hosseini, who operated under the username "Sagaroo" in the field of free internet and fighting against filtering, was arrested in recent months and recently published a video of his presence at his father's grave, saying: "Dad, I'm sorry, it was all because of me." It seems that Shahabeddin Hosseini's father passed away during his detention.