🔶 Sepideh Abtahi, documentary filmmaker detained

“Early this morning, a number of security forces came to our home. In addition to arresting my sister (Sepideh Abtahi), they also took away some of her personal electronic devices.” This statement was published by Saeideh Abtahi, the sister of Sepideh Abtahi, a documentary filmmaker, on Wednesday, 24 Tir (July 15), on her Instagram page.

She also wrote: “Our home was once destroyed during the war, and today again—by taking my sister. My sister Sepideh has always taken clear stances against war on her Instagram page, and she would enter into discussions and arguments with war-seekers. No one has any doubt about her being peace-loving and Iran-loving.”

Sepideh Abtahi, a documentary filmmaker and a member of the House of Cinema, had repeatedly protested on social media against war, domestic repression, and the issuance and execution of death sentences. In protest against the issuance of death sentences for two imprisoned women, Sharifeh Mohammadi and Pakshan Azizi, she published a text titled “Oath Letter,” in which she wrote: “Your duty is that if your foreign and unclean hands get closer to our kin ‘Sharifeh and Pakshan,’ then know that for me—Sepideh Abtahi, a woman, a citizen, and a documentary filmmaker living in Iran—you should dig a grave on the same land, cold and cruel.”