Updated

The United States says it is "deeply concerned" by the arrest of a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer and is calling for her immediate release.

Nasrin Sotoudeh, who had recently represented women protesting Iran's mandatory Islamic headscarf law, was taken from her home this week on unspecified security charges, according to her husband. She is also a critic of the judiciary, which is dominated by hard-liners, and has been jailed in the past.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert on Thursday called on Iranian authorities to "release her immediately, along with the hundreds of others who are currently imprisoned simply for expressing their views and desires for a better life."