Iran arrests former president's daughter in Tehran for 'inciting riots', report says

Iranian authorities arrested a former president's daughter on Tuesday for allegedly "inciting rioters", according to a semi-official media outlet.

The late Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's 59-year-old daughter Faezeh Hashemi "has been arrested in the east of Tehran by a security agency for inciting rioters to street protests", AFP quoted Iranian news agency Tasnim as saying.

No further details were provided, but the detention comes as Iran continues to be gripped by a wave of demonstrations following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

Amini was arrested on 16 September by Iranian morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab 'incorrectly'. She was reportedly beaten into a coma.

Faezeh Hashemi was previously a member of parliament.

The women's rights activist has drawn the ire of the Iranian authorities in the past and was given a six-month sentence for "propaganda against the Islamic republic" in 2012.

Authorities charged Hashemi with engaging in anti-Iran propaganda and blasphemy in July over remarks on social media, a report that month cited the judiciary as saying.

The United Nations called on Iran to stop using 'unnecessary or disproportionate force against protesters demanding justice for Mahsa Amini
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— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) September 28, 2022

She argued that Tehran's call for its Revolutionary Guards military branch to be delisted as a foreign terrorist group by the US was "damaging" to Iran's "national interests", reports said at the time.

She was previously reported as describing the Prophet Mohammed's first wife Khadija as a "businesswoman", and arguing that this showed women can participate in the economy. She also allegedly said Mohammed had spent Khadija's money.

She subsequently described the remarks as a "joke… without any intention of causing insult", AFP said, citing the official IRNA news agency.