A journalist and editor-in-chief of the website Kanoon Zanan Irani (Focus on Iranian Women), a news website focused on women’s rights. As a reporter, she has been present in almost all regional conflicts and wars in the Middle East over the past ten years, including those in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Meet Jila Baniyaghoob, Iran
Jila is a member of the One Million Signatures Campaign against discriminatory laws, and has been imprisoned numerous times over her reporting on peaceful demonstrations of women demanding legal reforms in Tehran. The most recent was June through August of this year when she was covering the peaceful uprisings in Iran following the elections. Jila's husband was also arrested, and remains in solitary confinement in Evin Prison. In Iran Jila works in a highly restrictive environment for both journalists and women. Still, she has fearlessly reported on government and social oppression, particularly as they affect women. She has been fired from several jobs because she refuses to censor the subject matter of her reporting and several of her media outlets have been closed by the government.
She has travelled throughout the Middle East, writing accounts of the lives of women and refugees during times of conflict. The topics of her reporting make her a target of the Iranian government.
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Read more about Iranian journalists who have been detained