{"id":43250,"date":"2026-08-13T14:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T09:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43250"},"modified":"2026-08-13T14:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T09:37:08","slug":"iranian-photojournalist-yalda-moaiery-faces-15-years-in-prison-over-images-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43250","title":{"rendered":"Iranian photojournalist Yalda Moaiery faces 15 years in prison over images, reporting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F08%2F137265928.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Acclaimed Iranian photojournalist Yalda Moaiery has spent much of her career documenting\u00a0moments of dissent\u00a0and the lives of women in Iran. <\/p>\n<p>The work has repeatedly brought her into conflict \u200bwith the authorities, and on Iran\u2019s National Journalist Day on Saturday she learned she had been sentenced to 15 years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>The sentence \u200cwas handed down under a law enacted after a\u00a012-day war\u00a0between Israel and Iran in 2025, legislation that Iranian authorities say is intended to combat espionage and cooperation with hostile states.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Yalda Moaiery speaks onstage during the International Women\u2019s Media Foundation\u2019s Courage in Journalism Awards 2023 at Bank of America Tower in New York City on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images for International Women&#8217;s Media Foundation<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When Moaiery arrived at Tehran\u2019s Revolutionary Court, she was not given formal case documents, she said. Instead, a friend accompanying her copied details from a charge sheet by hand. Rights groups say such \u200bprocedures reflect a lack of transparency in Iran\u2019s judicial system.<\/p>\n<p>According to the handwritten notes reviewed by Reuters, the accusations against her include giving interviews to \u200bmedia outlets deemed hostile by the authorities and providing photographs to organizations linked to the US and Israel. <\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Reuters could \u2060not independently verify the contents of the charge sheet.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement provided to Reuters, Moaiery said the intelligence wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps raided her \u200bhome during anti-government protests in January and confiscated her phone, laptop and other electronic equipment. <\/p>\n<p>She said IRGC officers returned after the US launched air strikes on Iran \u200bthis year and again seized her belongings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn this occasion, they took everything, including even the cameras I had owned since childhood,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>A picture taken by Yalda Moaiery, showing flames and smoke rise at the site of a strike carried out during the US-Israeli conflict in Tehran, Iran, on Friday, March 7, 2025.  <span class=\"credit\">via REUTERS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI was subjected to several interrogations, and eventually my case was referred to Branch 33 of the Security Prosecutor\u2019s Office and subsequently to the Revolutionary Court.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The spokesman for Iran\u2019s United Nations Mission in New York did not respond to a request \u200bfor comment on her case.<\/p>\n<p>Roya Boroumand, executive director of the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran, said that withholding case documents is an \u200beffort by the Islamic Republic to \u201csilence\u201d defendants and showed the judiciary \u201cblatantly\u201d acting as a state agent.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A CAREER CHRONICLING WOMEN\u2019S LIVES IN IRAN<\/h2>\n<p>The handwritten document provided by Moaiery to Reuters lists accusations \u200cincluding \u201cinterviewing with \u2060networks hostile to the system\u201d and sending photographs to entities in the United States and Israel that it describes as \u201chostile.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>A picture taken by Yalda Moaiery, showing a flower placed on an Iranian flag stained with blood in the aftermath of a strike carried out during the 40-day US-Israeli conflict with Iran in Tehran, Iran, on Thursday, March 13, 2025.  <span class=\"credit\">via REUTERS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Moaiery said she shared photographs showing damage from air strikes in Iran with CNN and appeared in an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2026\/03\/31\/world\/video\/iran-yalda-moaiery-intv-fst-033106pseg2-cnni-world-fast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interview about her reporting<\/a>\u00a0in March 2026.<\/p>\n<p>She has 10 days to appeal under the 2025 espionage law, half the time allowed under previous legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Moaiery has previously been imprisoned for her work. She served two years in Gharchak Prison, a place that she had previously photographed.<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, she \u200bspent three months in jail and was \u200bsentenced to eight years in prison \u2060for covering the nationwide \u201cWoman, Life, Freedom\u201d uprisings that erupted after the death of young Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody. An amnesty later reduced the sentence, but she said the case continued to expose her to questioning by authorities.<\/p>\n<p>Reporters Without \u200bBorders says 16 journalists have been detained in Iran this year.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>A picture taken by Yalda Moaiery, showing a man looking out of a damaged building at the site of a strike carried out during the US-Israeli conflict with Iran in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday, March 15, 2025.  <span class=\"credit\">via REUTERS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Moaiery\u2019s work has mainly focused on women. She photographed some \u200bof the earliest documented \u2060detentions of women by morality police, including a 2007 image showing two women sitting in white police vans, with tears streaming down their faces.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, she photographed a student protesting at economic conditions at Tehran University. The woman\u00a0walks through tear gas, raising her fist in the air. The image was used by the Trump administration in its comments \u2060on human \u200brights in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Moaiery said she remained committed to her work despite the prospect of further imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNone \u200bof these sentences, however, has ever caused me to abandon my path, even for a moment. I have continued to document and show the realities of Iranian society,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t have anything to \u200blose. The regime took everything from me and the only thing that I still have is my truth and honesty as an observer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Acclaimed Iranian photojournalist Yalda Moaiery has spent much of her career documenting\u00a0moments of dissent\u00a0and the lives of women in Iran. The work has repeatedly brought her into conflict \u200bwith the authorities, and on Iran\u2019s National Journalist Day on Saturday she learned she had been sentenced to 15 years in prison. The sentence \u200cwas handed down&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/137265928.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}