On 16 September 2022, Iranian photojournalist Yalda Moaiery was out on the streets of the Iranian capital Tehran, capturing images of protests that were soon to sweep around the world.
Days before, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman from Kurdistan, had been arrested by Iran’s morality police, accused of not wearing her headscarf properly. Shortly after that, news emerged that Mahsa had died in police custody. Though the authorities have always denied it, eyewitnesses say she was severely beaten by prison officers, later dying of the injuries she had sustained. It was a pivotal moment for hundreds of thousands of people in Iran, who took to the streets, chanting ‘Women, Life, Freedom’.
In this episode, Nicola speaks to Yalda about being detained in the notorious Qarchak prison, what she witnessed at the protests and the brutal crackdowns that followed.
Nearly two years on, how much has changed for women in Iran, and for those who expose the truth about what’s really going on there?