Trump urges Iran to free right women before Islamabad talks

US President Donald Trump has called on Iran to release eight detained women ahead of possible negotiations in Tehran. The detainees include members of the Bahai faith, teenage girls, and professionals arrested during anti-government protests earlier this year.

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday called on Iran to release eight women ahead of potential Islamabad talks.

The president reposted a photo of six women and two teen girls on social media Tuesday morning that a conservative activist noted are facing prosecution by the Iranian government.

---

“I am sure that they will respect the fact that you did so. Please do them no harm!” Trump posted. “Would be a great start to our negotiations!!!”

Five of those in the photo flagged by Trump were arrested during widespread anti-government protests earlier this year, according to human rights groups.

One of the women, from Iran’s minority Bahai faith, is accused of being part of a network described as “satanic and under the influence of Israel.”

Bita Hemmati was sentenced to death in Tehran after taking part in the protests, according to the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Mahboubeh Shabani was arrested in the city of Mashhad during the protests. She’s charged with “enmity of God,” which carries the death sentence, according to human rights monitor Hengaw.

Diana Taher Abadi and Ghazal Ghalandari are both 16, and were arrested separately in Karaj, west of Tehran, and Yasuj in southwestern Iran during the protests, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Venus Hossein Nejad, from the Bahai faith, was arrested in January from her workplace in southeast Iran. She was forced to confess on state TV and was accused with others of organizing protests and being members of a “satanic network and under the influence of Israel,” the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights said.

Golnar Naraqi, a 37-year-old emergency physician, was arrested in Tehran during the protests, according to a state-affiliated newspaper.

Two women were identified by Iranian social media as Ensieh Nejati and Panah Movahhedi Salamat. There was no immediate confirmed reports about their whereabouts.