Parisa Hafezi, Tehran bureau chief, honoured for courage

​Parisa Hafezi (photo)​, harassed, threatened and beaten while working in Iran, collected an international award for courage in journalism at ceremonies in the United States.

Hafezi, pictured, Reuters bureau chief in Tehran, was beaten by riot police as she covered protests following Iran’s disputed 2009 election. On different occasions Revolutionary Guards threatened to arrest her, she was detained and beaten, and undercover officers raided Reuters' offices and her home.

“A lot of people have asked me how I can do this job,” Hafezi said. “This is not my job - this is my life.”

She told the International Women's Media Foundation: “Some reporters refused to use the Tehran dateline but we weren’t afraid to show we were there. We didn’t move out; we were the first on the streets. We had to be strong and take the risks to report the stories.”

Hafezi was beaten after she insisted on covering the story of anti-government protests from the streets. On another occasion, unidentified men forced her car to the side of the road and took her to an unmarked building for a physically rough interrogation. Plainclothes agents also raided her home, an incident that she said still gives her two daughters nightmares.

“There have been nights when I have sat there with my bag ready, waiting to go to jail after writing a critical story,” she said. “Many of my colleagues and friends left the country after the disputed vote... I had to stay. I had to cover news. I had to do my job and tell the world about what was happening.”

Government agents raided Reuters’ Tehran office after the June 2009 protests, screaming at Hafezi and her staff. They bolted the doors, seized video equipment and ransacked the office. 

“While the head of the Revolutionary Guard team sat next to her and demanded she show him our computer system, Parisa surreptitiously managed to send a computer message to a colleague in London to alert Reuters of the raid,” said Caroline Drees, Middle East managing editor. “She hoped - and was right - that the Revolutionary Guards official would mistake the message for her login details.”

As violent protests abated in 2010, authorities attempted to intimidate Hafezi by revoking her press accreditation for 45 days and interrogating her when she travelled.

Hafezi was one of three women whose courage was recognised by the IWMF in Los Angeles and New York this week. The others were Adela Navarro Bello, general director and columnist for Zeta news magazine in Mexico, and Chiranuch Premchaiporn, director of Prachatai online newspaper in Thailand. Their prize was $5,000 and a crystal sculpture symbolising freedom and courage. ■