It sounds utterly absurd, and the reason it does is because it truly is by any reasonable or rational measure.
A British-Iranian woman detained in Iran after trying to watch a men’s volleyball match has been sentenced to a year in prison, her lawyer says.
Ghoncheh Ghavami, 25, was found guilty of spreading anti-regime propaganda, lawyer Alizadeh Tabatabaie said.
Iran banned women from volleyball games in 2012, extending a long-standing ban on football matches.
The Iranian authorities have argued that women need protection from the lewd behaviour of male fans.
Actually their argument is clearly wrong because the truth is quite transparent, women actually need protection from the Iranian authorities.
There is a petition for you to sign
Over 700,000 have already signed, please surf on over to Change.org, it just takes a few minutes, and please do sign. The petition reads …
Since June 2014 my younger sister is in solitary confinement in Tehran. She was arrested for going to a men’s volleyball match.
Ghoncheh is a British Iranian dual citizen. She was there to watch a game. She was arrested because of a misunderstanding.
Amnesty International has called for an Urgent Action for my sister. Amnesty believes Ghoncheh has been put under psychological pressure and been told she “would not walk out of prison alive.”
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has said it was “aware of reports” of her imprisonment but its diplomatic powers are limited in Iran. We know that the UK Government has the power to do more to help Ghoncheh. Past cases have shown us that when pressure is applied Government will take more action.
Every signature and share will bring my sister closer to home. Will you help end this nightmare for my family?
What has happened to her is truly absurd
The entire legal process has been a complete farce, Amnesty International has said that Ghoncheh’s lawyer has not been allowed to meet in prison or even access her case file.
Ghoncheh was in Iran for a few months to work for a charity teaching literacy to street children and see her family. She thought women would be allowed to attend World League volleyball matches after Iran was warned about the matter by International Federation of Volleyball (FIVB), so she decided to go and ended up getting arrested and jailed for one year.
The true irony is that while she has been jailed on the manufactured charges of “spreading anti-regime propaganda”, the facts are that it is the utterly absurd actions of the Iranian Authorities themselves that has spread “anti-regime propaganda” by throwing a very bright spotlight upon the misogynistic lunacy that prevails.
She is now on hunger strike and is protesting against her wholly illegal detention.
“Ghavami’s case is not merely that of a single individual. It represents the fundamental injustice of a legally entrenched and institutionalised system of gender discrimination with which Iranian women battle on a daily basis. And it sums up the capriciousness of the wayward and vindictive judiciary which can descend on Iranian citizens without notice, deprive them of their rights and effectively flush them down a legal black hole, until the powers-that-be deem otherwise.” – Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi