A British woman locked in a notorious Iranian jail for trying to watch a men's volleyball match has been charged with 'propaganda against the regime' - three months after being taken prisonerGhoncheh Ghavami, 25, was arrested and taken to Tehran's notorious Evin jail a few days after attempting to watch a volleyball match between Iran and Italy on June 20.
She was part of a group of women protesting Iranian stricture which bans females from attending men's sporting events.
According to her family, Miss Ghavami has spent 41 days in solitary confinement and been subjected to threats of being moved to a more dangerous prison.
An Amnesty International spokesman said: 'She is a prisoner of conscience, arrested solely for taking part in a peaceful protest against the ban on women attending Volleyball World League matches in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium.'
At first Ms Ghavami, who previously studied law in London, was arrested then released, but when she went back to fetch her belongings, she was re-arrested and jailed.
Several others involved in the demonstration were also detained.
Miss Ghavami is of joint British-Iranian heritage, but Iran refuses to acknowledge jointnationality and the fact that she has a British passport is seen as irrelevant.
Her brother, 28-year-old Iman Ghavami, previously told ITV News: '[The family] can barely hold themselves together.
'They are torn apart – not just my parents but my grandparents, my uncles, everybody.'
Iran's head of police, Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam, told the Fars news agency: 'In the current conditions, the mixing of men and women in stadiums is not in the public interest.
DailyMail
No comments:
Post a Comment