She was released on bail several weeks later. Intelligence Ministry agents arrested Nasrin Takhayori on January 27th, 2013. At least a dozen other journalists – working for Bahar, Etemad and Arman-e Shargh newspapers and Aseman magazine – were also detained then. The reporters, who were taken to Ward 209 of Evin Prison and placed in solitary confinement, were charged with communicating with international media and disseminating propaganda against the regime.

According to Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, one of the reasons they were arrested is the fact that they were teaching themselves how to use cellphones to take video footage, edit it and transmit it to the BBC.

A week before the arrests, judiciary spokesman Mohseni Ejei told a news conference “we have reliable information and sources that certain individuals who work for our own press are also communicating with the outside [media]. Now if we take action against these individuals they broadcast that they have been arrested.”

Certain hardliner websites claimed Takhayori was connected to “feminist” movements and supported “sedition” arrestees—sedition being shorthand for the Green Movement. The international media, including the likes of Reuters and the Guardian, picked up the arrests. The latter published a report the day that the journalists were arrested.

“When the Guardian phoned journalists at Etemaad and Bahar in the evening, officials were still present in the offices and editors of the two newspapers could not be reached,” said the report. “Reasons behind the mass arrests on Sunday are still not clear but Mehr said the journalists were accused of co-operating with ‘anti-revolutionary’, Persian-speaking media organizations outside the country. The Islamic Regime has previously arrested people who it claims had links with foreign-based Persian-speaking media, especially the BBC's Persian service, which is loathed by the Islamic republic but remains popular in the country.”

After spending a month in solitary confinement, Takhayori was transferred to a two-man prisoner cell at Evin Prison. Her case was passed on to the Court of Culture and Media.

Nasrin Takhayori was released on bail on March 5th, 2013. Her case remains open with no verdict having been issued.