British-Iranian woman sentenced to year in jail for watching volleyball

Iranian-British Ghoncheh Ghavami, 25, detained while trying to attend a men’s volleyball game in Iran was found guilty of “propagating against the ruling system” on Sunday, her lawyer Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei said.

Ghavami was first detained on 20 June while watching an Iran-Italy match at Tehran’s Freedom Stadium. She was then released, but re-arrested on 30 June and put on trial. She has been sentenced to a year in prison.

Iran banned women from volleyball games in 2012, extending a long-standing ban on football matches. The Iranian government argues that women need protection from the lewd behaviour of male fans.

Ghavami along with a group of other women tried to protest the ban according to Amnesty International, which said the verdict was “appalling”.

“It’s an outrage that [a] young woman is being locked up simply for peacefully having her say about how women are discriminated against in Iran.

“Ghoncheh is a prisoner of conscience and the Iranian authorities should quash the sentence and release her immediately and unconditionally.”

However Iran's judiciary spokesman, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, has denied this and criticised reports linking Ghavami's arrest to volleyball. "Her case has nothing to do with sports,” he said last month.

There have also been concerns regarding Ghoncheh’s treatment while in custody, who has been reportedly beaten and held in solitary confinement.

“The authorities should also investigate allegations that Ghoncheh was subjected to death threats by her interrogators and provide compensation for her arbitrary detention and her prolonged solitary confinement,” said Allen.

Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCP) immediately declared its concern about the sentence.

“We have concerns about the grounds of this prosecution, due process during the trial and Miss Ghavami’s treatment whilst in custody,” the FCO in a statement.

Ghavami, from Shephards’s Bush in West London and a graduate of the University of London’s School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) had been volunteering to help street kids in Iran for a few months, according to her brother Imam Ghavami.

Her brother said the family had been hoping she would be set free based on time already served since her June arrest.

"We're disappointed and kind of shocked. We really hoped she'd be released," he told The Associated Press.

Ghavami launched a hunger strike in October while more than 700,000 have signed an online petition urging the Iranian government to release her.  

Iran’s human rights record has been under scrutiny with several reports about discrimination against women reaching headlines.

Last week, 26-year-old Reyhaneh Jabbari was hanged for stabbing a man she alleges had sexually assaulted her. Jabbari had been detained since 2007.

In October, an award-winning human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotodeh was reportedly barred from practice for three years after being released half-way through a six-year sentence for “actions against national security and committing propaganda against the regime.”