نیلوفر حامدی

Who she is

نیلوفر حامدی (Nilufar Hâmedi), born 1992, is an Iranian photojournalist for the reformist daily شرق (Sharq). Before her arrest she was 30 years old and covered women’s affairs and social policy. Her name in Persian means “water-lily”; the photo she took on 16 September 2022 inside Tehran’s Kasra Hospital, of Mahsa Amini’s parents collapsed in grief in a corridor, became the image that detonated the Woman-Life-Freedom uprising.

What happened

Hamedi reached Kasra Hospital after Mahsa was brought in comatose from the morality police’s custody. She posted the family photo to X (then Twitter) with the caption دختر ایران جان باخت (dokhtar-e Irân jân bâkht), “the daughter of Iran lost her life.” Within hours the photo was the most-shared image in Iranian social media. On 22 September 2022, six days later, Ministry of Intelligence agents raided her home, sealed it, and took her to solitary in Evin. She was held in Section 209 (the intelligence wing) for months before formal charges. The state’s case: “propaganda against the system,” “collusion against national security,” and a charge later dropped of “collaboration with the United States.” In October 2023 a Revolutionary Court sentenced her to 13 years across three concurrent counts (7 + 5 + 1).

What followed

She was released on €400,000 bail on 14 January 2024 after 17 months in prison, alongside Elaheh Mohammadi. On 11 February 2025, on the 46th anniversary of the 1979 revolution, the Supreme Leader’s pardon list closed her case. The state framed this as clemency. Press-freedom organizations called it overdue: she should not have been imprisoned in the first place. While inside, she was awarded the 2023 UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize jointly with Mohammadi and Narges Mohammadi, and the 2023 Pulitzer Center Persephone Miel Fellowship.

How she’s remembered

Hamedi’s hospital-corridor photo is now one of the canonical images of the 2022 uprising, reproduced on diaspora protest signs from Berlin to Toronto. The 16th of every month, the date Mahsa was hospitalized, became a recurring vigil date for Iranian diaspora communities; Hamedi’s photo is often the centerpiece. Inside Iran, Sharq newspaper continues to publish; her byline returned in 2025. The Committee to Protect Journalists tracks her case as a benchmark for press-freedom retaliation by the Iranian state.

Cross-links

See Mahsa Amini, Elaheh Mohammadi, zan-zendegi-âzâdi, gasht-e ershâd, Evin Prison, Etelâ’ât (MOIS).

Sources

• IFJ (13 Feb 2025): “Iran: Journalists Elaheh Mohammadi, Niloofar Hamedi and Rouhollah Nakhaei granted pardons”
• Reuters (22 Oct 2023): sentencing of Hamedi and Mohammadi by Tehran Revolutionary Court
• UNESCO (2 May 2023): Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to Mohammadi, Hamedi, and Narges Mohammadi
• Committee to Protect Journalists case file: Niloofar Hamedi
• BBC Persian / The Guardian (Sep 2022): coverage of the original Kasra Hospital photo

References

• Dehkhoda Lexicon
• IFJ pardon report (Feb 2025)
• CPJ case file
• UNESCO Press Freedom Prize 2023
• Reuters: 13-year sentence (Oct 2023)