The meeting, themed "In Solidarity with Marzieh Hashemi, the Black American Muslim Journalist Illegally Held In US Prison", was organized by Association of Muslim Journalists.
Among the participants were Nader Talebzadeh, a writer, researcher, and filmmaker, Seyyed Mohammad Marandi, a political analyst and professor at the University of Tehran, and Seyyed Mostafa Khoshcheshm, a political analyst and university professor.
Talebzadeh, who has worked with Hashemifor years, described her arrest as a “concocted plan by the Trump administration” to elicit a reaction from Iran. “This is intimidation and a provocation against Iran,” he said.
Describing Hashemi’s detainment as a “straightforward result of American arrogance, he said “the “US would probably pay for this dearly.”
“Hashemi exemplifies very stern beliefs of what happened in 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran,” he added.
“Her detention is the direct result of a lot of thinking and think tanks,” he added, stressing that the move is as part of a broader plot to intimidate Iran and those who stand for the Islamic Revolution.
The senior scholar expressed hope that the anchorwoman would be released soon.
“Such detainments would be costly for the US government,” he sad.
Hashemi, an American-born Muslim convert who has been living in Iran for years, was detained at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in Missouri last Sunday while she was in the US to visit her ill brother and other family members.
She was transferred to a detention facility in Washington DC, where she was forced to remove her hijab and only offered food not permissible under her Islamic values.
After days of silence, the US government confirmed on Friday that it was holding Hashemi in jail as a “material witness,” and that she would be released after she testified before a grand jury.
According to Hashemi’s son, Hossein, she was known in the prison as a journalist, adding that prison guards had started to treat her better since her situation was widely reflected in the press.
MNA