An Iranian-origin British woman has been languished in an Iranian prison for more than two months for trying to watch men’s volleyball match, reported The Independent.
Ghoncheh Ghavami, 25, was arrested along with more than a dozen women as they tried to enter a stadium where the Iranian national men’s team was playing Italy on 20 June.
According to the report, the woman was released from custody the next day. But when she went back to collect her belongings days later, she was rearrested and transferred to Tehran’s notorious Evin jail, which is known for holding political prisoners and journalists.
Her brother Iman Ghavami said his sister rang her family in tears saying she had been put in solitary confinement for 41 days.
“The family can barely hold themselves together,” he told ITV News.
“We are torn apart – not just my parents but my grandparents, my uncles, everybody.”
Choncheh, a budding lawyer who studied in London, has dual Iranian and British nationality.
A Facebook campaign to free her has already started, garnering almost 9,000 “likes” and lead to protests at other Iranian volleyball matches.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was “aware of reports” of her imprisonment and was looking into them but its diplomatic powers are limited in Iran.
She had been protesting with other female rights activists at the Azadi Stadium, which means “freedom”, against a ban on women watching male sports.
The law was introduced after the 1979 Islamic Revolution as mixed crowds enjoying games, where men are not considered fully dressed, was deemed un-Islamic.
“In the current conditions, the mixing of men and women in stadiums is not in the public interest,” said Iran's head of police, Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam, according to the Fars news agency.
“The stance taken by religious scholars and the supreme leader remains unchanged, and as the enforcer of law, we cannot allow women to enter stadiums.”
Foreign women who have travelled to Iran to watch volleyball matches have been permitted to enter the venues in the past but only when displaying their passport.
Human rights activists in Iran had hoped the election of moderate President Hassan Rouhani would lead to more liberal laws and moves towards equality but the religious establishment under Ayatollah Khomeini holds huge power.