Iranian Photojournalist Sentenced to Prison

Yalda Moairy, an influential Iranian photojournalist, has dedicated her career to highlighting moments of opposition and the experiences of women in Iran. Unfortunately, her efforts have often put her at odds with the authorities. Recently, on Iran’s National Journalists Day, she found out that she has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

This ruling stems from a law implemented following a brief war between Israel and Iran in 2025, which, according to Iranian officials, is intended to tackle espionage and connections with adversarial nations.

Upon arriving at Tehran’s revolutionary court, Moairy reported that she did not receive any official documents related to her case. Instead, a friend had to painstakingly jot down details of the indictment by hand. Human rights organizations have criticized this lack of transparency in Iran’s judicial proceedings.

The accusations against Moairy reportedly involve giving interviews to media outlets deemed hostile by the government and providing photographs to organizations associated with the U.S. and Israel, as noted in handwritten accounts reviewed by Reuters.

Reuters couldn’t confirm the specifics of the indictment independently.

In a statement to Reuters, Moairy recounted an incident where the intelligence branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps conducted a raid on her home during anti-government protests in January, seizing her phone, laptop, and other devices. She stated that Revolutionary Guards returned after U.S. airstrikes commenced against Iran this year, confiscating her possessions once more.

“At that time, they took everything, including the camera I’ve had since childhood,” she remarked.

Moairy mentioned she had been interrogated repeatedly before her case was forwarded to the Security Prosecutor’s Office and then to the Revolutionary Court.

There was no response from Iran’s U.N. mission regarding her case when approached for comment.

Roya Boroumand, the executive director of the U.S.-based Iranian Center for Human Rights, asserted that withholding case documents reflects the Islamic Republic’s attempt to “silence” defendants, indicating that the judicial system is overtly acting in the state’s interest.

A Career Focused on Iranian Women

A document Moairy provided to Reuters lists charges such as “interviewing networks with hostile intentions” and sending images to organizations the government labels as “hostile.”

Moairy stated she has shared photographs of damage resulting from an airstrike with CNN and even appeared on their show in March 2026.

She now has just 10 days to appeal her sentence under the Espionage Act of 2025, which is notably less than the time previously allowed for appeals.

This isn’t the first time Moairy has faced imprisonment. She previously spent two years in Garchak Prison, a place she has documented in her work. In 2022, she received an eight-year sentence, which was later commuted to three months for her coverage of the Women, Life, Freedom uprising, ignited by the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died in police custody. Despite a pardon that reduced her sentence, she continued to find herself under scrutiny by authorities.

According to Reporters Without Borders, 16 journalists have been detained in Iran this year alone.

Moairy’s photography primarily revolves around issues faced by women. She captured some of the first images of women detained by morality police, including a poignant 2007 photograph of two women crying inside a police van.

In 2017, she documented student protests at Tehran University, capturing a woman walking through gas and raising her fist, an image later used by the Trump administration in discussions about human rights in Iran.

Despite the looming threat of further imprisonment, Moairy expressed her unwavering commitment to her work.

“None of these incidents has ever swayed me from my mission, even for a moment. I’ve continued to document and reveal the truths of Iranian society,” she stated. “I have nothing to lose. The regime has taken everything from me, and all that remains is my truth and integrity as an observer.”