TEHRAN: The daughter of Iran’s former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani faces prosecution over social media comments on the Revolutionary Guards and the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him), the judiciary said on Tuesday.

       Faezeh Hashemi, 59, is “summoned by the prosecutor over these two affairs”, judiciary spokesman Zabihollah Khodayian told a news conference.

       Khodayian referred to “remarks by Faezeh Hashemi on sanctions against revolutionary institutions and the insult against the Prophet”.

       Faezeh Hashemi, a former lawmaker and a women’s rights activist, contended last month during an audio debate on a social media forum that Iran’s demand for the Guards to be removed from a US terror list was “damaging” to the country’s “national interests”.

       Removal of the terror designation is a key demand of Tehran in stalled negotiations over restoring its frayed 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Akbar Rafsanjani, Faezeh’s late father, was a moderate who advocated improved ties with the West and the United States.

       Faezeh Hashemi was sentenced to six months in jail in late 2012 on charges of “propaganda against the Islamic republic”.

       Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2022