Journalist Detained While Investigating Tehran Subway Incident

A journalist from Shargh Daily has been arrested for reporting the story of a teenager who was hospitalized after an altercation with hijab authorities in Tehran's metro.

Maryam Lotfi was apprehended while investigating the case of the young girl who was using the metro with her friends on Sunday without wearing their hijab, when an altercation with law enforcement authorities caused her to fall and hit her head on an iron bar, according to Farzad Saifi-Karan, a correspondent for the Radio Zamaneh website. On Monday night reports surfaced that Lotfi was released.

The young girl was transported to Fajr Air Force hospital and the CEO of Tehran Metro, Masoud Darabzadeh, confirmed she had been administered "life-saving" measures. The hospital has since been surrounded by heightened security as the case continues to draw concern, for both the victim and the imprisoned journalist, the latest in a list of scores of journalists imprisoned during the last year's uprising.

Footage released of the incident fails to give a clear picture, in spite of mass surveillance camera coverage across the metro and the city at large, showing only a cropped video from outside the train car depicting a group of unveiled teenage girls entering the car and later passengers assisting an unconscious girl. No footage from potential cameras inside the metro car has been made available thus far.

On Monday, Darabzadeh denied any wrongdoing and declared that the girl's loss of consciousness was caused by a "sudden drop in blood pressure." He rejected claims of any altercations between staff and the young girl.

It is unclear which authority exactly was involved in the altercation nor that responsible for the arrest of Maryam Lofti for her reporting on the incident which has chilling echoes of the case of young Mahsa Amini who died in the hands of morality police for the inappropriate wearing of her headscarf.