Iranian female journalists continue to report on protests despite the risks of arrest and violence.

Female journalists in Iran have been targeted by security forces since anti-government protests began in September, activist groups say.

Figures vary, but at least 17 have been arrested, an international group for press freedom says. Another puts the number about three times that or more.

Iran has been gripped by some of the biggest protests it has seen since the Islamic Republic was founded in 1979.

Nearly 20,000 people are estimated to have been detained since September.

More than 520 protesters have been killed by security forces in that time, according to the Iranian Human Rights Activists' News Agency (Hrana).

The most recent arrest of a female journalist was that of Elnaz Mohammadi, who works for the "reformist" newspaper Hammihan. She was released on bail on Sunday.

Ms Mohammadi is the twin sister of Elaheh Mohammadi, who works for the same newspaper and was arrested on 29 September last year. She was detained for her reporting on the funeral of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman whose death in police custody on 16 September sparked the protests. Ms Amini had been detained for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.

A week before Elnaz Mohammadi was arrested, three other female journalists - Melika Hashemi, Saideh Shafiei and Mehrnoosh Zareie - were detained within the space of 48 hours.

"We're seeing an unusual number of female journalists being arrested because what sparked the protests was the mandatory hijab law and the death of a young woman because of gender discrimination," Yeganeh Rezaian, a researcher with the Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), told the BBC.

"Naturally more female journalists were covering the story. Even in small towns and local newspapers women were reporting on the women-led protests that were taking place," she said.

Indeed the first journalist to publish a photo of Mahsa Amini was Niloufar Hamedi. She was arrested on 22 September and is still behind bars.

The CPJ estimates that at least 98 journalists and bloggers have been arrested, half of whom, it says, are women.

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