Arrest Warrant Issued for Saba Kamali Following Her Support for ‘Blue Girl’; Charge: Insulting Imam Hussein
As news of the self-immolation and death of a girl in Iran has triggered widespread domestic and international reactions, some news agencies reported the issuance of an arrest warrant for an actress on the pretext of “insulting the third Imam of Shiites” in posts supporting this girl.
Farsnews, a news agency affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported the issuance of an arrest warrant for Saba Kamali, an Iranian cinema and theater actress, following the publication of a post on Twitter in support of “Sahar Khodayari.” However, in this report, following the long-standing practice of Iranian state media, only the initials of the name and surname of Ms. Saba Kamali were used, and she was introduced as “a not-so-famous cinema actress.”
On Wednesday night, September 20, the news agency stated that the reason for the arrest warrant for “S.K.” was insulting the third Imam of Shiites.
Following the publication of this news, however, Ms. Kamali deleted her post and wrote that the text she had published was an “imaginary and intimate” conversation with the third Imam of Shiites, and she had deleted the post because of “narrow-minded and bigoted” individuals.
In her deleted post, addressing the third Imam of Shiites, she described Sahar Khodayari, known as the “Blue Girl,” as “more oppressed” than him.
Sahar Khodayari, a supporter of Tehran’s Esteghlal football club who was arrested months earlier while attempting to enter a stadium to watch a football match, recently self-immolated in front of one of Tehran’s judicial units after hearing news of her imprisonment, and died days later from the severity of her injuries.
The U.S. State Department, on Tuesday night, September 19, continuing widespread reactions to Sahar Khodayari’s death, wrote in a post on its Farsi Twitter account: “The tragic death of Sahar Khodayari, the Blue Girl, is another testament to the fact that the greatest victims of this regime are the Iranian people themselves.”
Source: Voice of America
