Iran detains a political activist who criticized the ruling system, his wife says

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian authorities have arrested a political activist who criticized the Islamic Republic’s ruling system, his wife announced Sunday on social media.

Fereshteh Mazinani, the wife of Mehdi Nasiri, announced on a Telegram channel linked to Nasiri that he was arrested just after the couple visited the tomb complex of a famous Persian poet, Ferdowsi (who died in 1020 A.D.) in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad.

Nasiri filmed a video in which he spoke about Ferdowsi and his great role in the Persian language, Mazinani said. According to her, Nasiri also mentioned the tomb complex was created in 1934 under the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, and developed in 1964 by his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The son, the last Shah of Iran, was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Security at the complex checked Nasiri’s phone and the video before he was arrested and transferred to police custody. He was then taken away by the intelligence forces, his wife said.

Nasiri previously served as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative at the hardline Kayhan Daily newspaper, where he was editor-in-chief for three years in the early 1990s.

In recent years, Nasiri criticized the Islamic Republic’s ruling system, especially Khamenei’s decisions, Iran’s interference in the region and spending so much money on the Iranian proxy forces in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

In 2022, after mass protests against the government over the death of a woman, Mahsa Jina Amini, held by the morality police for allegedly violating the strictly enforced dress code for women, Nasiri appeared at the graves of some people who lost their lives during the protest. He made some videos criticizing the government for its handling of the protests.

The reason behind the arrest is not clear and none of the Iranian state media have reported it yet.