The father of Alessia Piperno, an Italian woman detained in Iran, has said the family are extremely worried about her plight. There has been a wave of arrests as people took to the streets following the death in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.
Recently, hundreds of people have taken to the streets of Iran in protest over the death in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. ‘Morality police’ arested her for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic’s dress code. In retaliation, Iran has launched a massive wave of arrests.
Alessia’s father, Alberto Piperno, told ANSA, “We are very worried. Unfortunately, the situation is not good.”
“We are in contact with the foreign ministry’s crisis unit, which has activated all the relevant procedures”.
No contact for 4 days
In a subsequently deleted Facebook post, Alberto Piperno said that, until a call to the family on Sunday, they had not had news from the woman for four days. It was her 30th birthday on September 28th. “This morning we got a call. It was her crying, telling us she was in prison. In Tehran. She only spoke a few desperate words. She was asking for help”.
There has been no official confirmation so far of the woman’s arrest.
Piperno said he had a telephone call from his daughter from a Tehran prison on Sunday. “After Alessia’s phone call from prison yesterday we haven’t had any news, we haven’t heard from her,” Alberto Piperno said.
He also said his daughter was a “solo traveller who goes around the world to discover the habits and customs of (different) peoples.
“She has always respected the traditions and, in certain cases, the obligations of each country she visited,” he said.
In a recent Instagram post, Alessia Piperno had said leaving Iran would have been the “wisest” thing for her to do; but said he was unable to leave “in part because I am part of all this”. On her birthday, however, she said she had decided to go to Pakistan.
