Three family members of an Iran International TV presenter were detained in Tehran by the Revolutionary Guards forces seeking to force her resignation as the channel continues its uncensored coverage of the Iran-Israel conflict amid an official internet blackout.
The presenter's mother, father and younger brother are being held in an unidentified location.
The presenter received a phone call from her father early Saturday morning urging her to resign. The voices of security agents could be heard in the background telling her father what to say.
“I’ve told you a thousand times to resign. What other consequences do you expect?” he told her. "You have to resign”.
"Iran International strongly condemns the Islamic Republic's recent abduction of family members of one of our journalists, an appalling act of hostage-taking aimed at coercing our colleague into resigning from their post," a spokesperson for Iran International said.
"This deeply reprehensible tactic marks a dangerous escalation in the Islamic Republic's ruthless campaign to silence dissent and suppress independent journalism."
Exerting pressure on the families of Iran International staff is not new. Many have faced ongoing harassment, surveillance, and intimidation over the years. However, this latest development crosses a new threshold.
The deliberate detention of a relative, coupled with the use of psychological torture, represents a cruel and calculated effort to break the will of our journalists by targeting their loved ones.
This tactic is a violation of international human rights law. It is also an alarming indicator of the lengths the Islamic Republic will go to silence independent reporting and suppress truth.
Iran International is increasingly concerned that the Iranian government is entering a new phase of unchecked repression, in which individuals linked to independent media outlets or international organizations risk being taken hostage and subjected to cruel treatment.
Iran International calls upon the UN and its member states, international human rights bodies and media watchdogs to condemn this act of state-sponsored intimidation and to exert maximum pressure on the Iranian authorities for the immediate and unconditional release of the family of Iran International’s presenter.
Iran International remains undeterred by attempts to silence it and remains committed to its mission of providing independent and accurate news to the Iranian people.
Iran International is an independent television news channel broadcasting to Iran, offering unbiased and uncensored news and analysis to a wide audience. It is the most-watched news channel in Iran.
Based in London, it aims to provide a platform for diverse voices and foster informed public discourse on events concerning Iran and the wider region. Iran International is managed by Volant Media UK Limited.
Hosseinnejad, a nail technician from Eslamshahr south of Tehran, vanished on her way home late last month, and her body was found days later riddled with stab wounds.
Police later arrested the man driving her, whose account of the murder varied from an altercation over payment to his alleged gendered slur that she had been "shameless", according to Iranian media citing police.
Voice messages and texts sent to Iran International's submissions line point to a deep well of shared trauma and anger in the male-dominated theocracy.
“I was nearly abducted in broad daylight,” one woman said. “I ran into a stranger’s house because I had no other way to escape. And this wasn’t even a remote place—this was a residential street.”
Dozens of accounts tell similar stories. One woman said her Snapp ride-hailing driver changed course three times, laughing when she protested. Another described how a man posing as a Tapsi driver sexually assaulted her on a highway outside Isfahan.
Snapp and Tapsi are Iran’s two leading app-based ride services modeled on Uber.
“These stories have always existed,” another woman said. “What Elahe’s death has done is rip the veil off.”
Hosseinnejad’s body was released under heavy security and buried without a public funeral.
Systemic fear and silence
In the messages submitted to Iran International, women described persistent sexual harassment in taxis, parks, workplaces and schools.
Some said they were assaulted while taking rides, others while walking to university or boarding a bus.
One woman described sitting quietly in a shared car when the driver suddenly pulled over and exposed himself. “I kicked the door open and ran,” she wrote. “But for weeks, he called me from different numbers, threatening to find me.”
“I went to file a complaint, and they asked if I had a witness,” another woman wrote. “I said if I had one, I wouldn’t be in this situation. They told me to drop it if I cared about my reputation.”
Several others shared versions of the same response: authorities demanding impossible evidence, mocking victims or advising them to stay quiet.
“The law is not on our side,” said another woman. “If something happens to you, they treat you like the criminal.”
Ride-hailing platforms in focus
Snapp and Tapsi, Iran’s dominant ride-hailing apps, came under renewed scrutiny following Hosseinnejad’s death.
Many contributors noted that both apps have faced growing criticism for weak driver vetting and limited response to complaints.
“I was 18, and the driver kept making crude comments,” one woman wrote. “When I reported him to Snapp, they told me they’d investigate. Nothing happened. He kept calling me from different phones.”
In several cases, riders said drivers had pressured them to adjust their clothing or implied they could be dropped off mid-trip to avoid fines under Iran’s hijab regulations.
“I wore my scarf just to avoid trouble,” wrote one student. “But the way they looked at me … it was like they were waiting for an opportunity.”
The cost of inequality
Women who contacted Iran International repeatedly returned to one point: gender-based inequality under the law.
“I don’t want revenge,” one woman said of Hosseinnejad’s accused killer. “I want justice. But how can there be justice when our lives are worth half as much under the law?”
Under Iranian law, murder is punishable by death, but when a man kills a woman, the victim’s family must first pay half the standard blood money—set annually by judicial authorities—to the killer’s family before an execution can take place. Activists say this devalues women’s lives and deters families from pursuing justice.
Elahe Hosseinnejad’s story has ignited anger—but also a grim sense of recognition. “She did everything right,” one woman said. “She worked, cared for her family, shared her beliefs—but still, she ended up dead."
That’s what terrifies us most.”