Local Iranian sources have reported that Farideh Moradkhani, Ali Khamenei's sister's daughter has been arrested by Iran's security forces last Friday from her house.
According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency of Iran (HRANA), 35-year old Farideh Moradkhani had security forces arriving at her house, taking her personal belongings away, before arresting her and driving her to the notorious Evin political prison near Tehran.
#BREAKING Farideh Moradkhani, a human rights activist and Ali Khamenei's niece (his sister's daughter), has been arrested and transferred to Evin Prison.
— Alex kennedy (@Alexkennedy30) January 17, 2022
Her father (Khamenei's brother-in-law), a longtime critic of Islamic Republic, had also been jailed fo pic.twitter.com/YpAuf40OQR
While no charges have been pressed against Farideh Moradkhani so far, Moradkhani has been located in Ward 209, according to the Telegraph.
In Iran, Farideh Moradkhani is known for her activism against the death penalty and for civil freedoms in the country where her uncle is the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the de facto ruler of the ultra-conservative country.
43 years ago the Shah of #Iran, with Empress Farah at his side, voluntarily left his country to avoid bloodshed.
— NUFDI (@NUFDIran) January 16, 2022
Today, the Islamic Republic detained Farideh Moradkhani @khamenei_ir's own niece for reading this poem to @ShahbanouFarah calling for her return.
(English subtitles) pic.twitter.com/ORnjerTehO
Khamenei's niece, Farideh Moradkhani, was detained and imprisoned in Evin prison on Friday for her support of the Pahlavi monarchy. https://t.co/9acWAUtTur
— Yossi Mansharof (@Yossi_Mansharof) January 16, 2022
Farideh Moradkhani introduces herself as Electrical Engineer - Human Rights Activist on Instagram, which she mostly devotes to posting about political detainees in the country.
Sources in the Iranian opposition in exile told the Telegraph that Farideh Moradkhani's arrest might be based on a statement she made last October during an online event, in which she praised the former royalty of Iran, the one ousted by the same regime headed by her uncle Ali Khamenei, calling Queen Farah Diba, the widow of the last Shah who was celebrating her birthday then as the “mother of the nation”.
Farideh Moradkhani is the daughter of religious Shia cleric, Ali Tehrani, who had taken his family to exile in Iraq in 1985, protesting mass executions in Iran in the wake of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war. He returned to Iran in 1995 where he served a jail sentence for 20 years for "collaborating with Baghdad during the 1980-88 war."
