Arrest of Former Iranian President Rafsanjani's Daughter

Iranian authorities arrested Faezah Hashemi, daughter of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, on Tuesday for allegedly "inciting demonstrators" in eastern Tehran, according to the local agency Tasnim. The agency reported that Faezah "has a previous record of arrests due to her direct involvement in some protests" in the past. Rafsanjani is known for her criticism of the regime, and in July, a court brought charges against her for propaganda against the government and blasphemy on social media platforms. The accusations were linked to alleged comments by Rafsanjani, a former parliamentarian and women’s rights activist, during a radio discussion on a social media platform in April. Local media quoted Faezah Rafsanjani stating that Tehran's request to remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the U.S. list of "foreign terrorist organizations" was "detrimental to national interests." The removal of the IRGC from the "terror" list was one of the contentious demands in negotiations to revive the nuclear agreement with Tehran, signed in 2015. Faezah Rafsanjani, aged 59, is the daughter of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former moderate president who advocated for rapprochement with the West and the United States. The feminist activist and former parliamentarian was sentenced to six months in prison at the end of 2012 for "propaganda" against the Islamic Republic.