Protest at Tehran prison by mother of British woman

Susan Moshtaghian, the mother of Ghonche Ghavami, marked the 100th day of her daughter's detention with a daring public challenge to the authorities.

"Today is the hundredth day of my daughter's detention. She is very unwell and during all these last one hundreds days no official has listened to us at all," Mrs Moshtaghian announced on Facebook.

"I have come here today outside the gates of Evin prison and shall not move until my daughter is released.

"I visited her on Saturday and she has lost a lot of weight. She told me 'my only hope is to see you once a week and if I am not able to see you I will die'."

She added: "My daughter is very sick of being kept in solitary cell and her case remains unsolved and we do not know how we can help her from outside or what we should do. As no one has heard our cry for justice I have no demand from them any more and just sit outside this gate until my daughter is freed."

Miss Ghavami was detained outside the Azadi Stadium in the capital, Tehran, after she and fellow women’s rights campaigners tried to enter the arena to watch an Iran-Italy volleyball match.

Under the country’s restrictive Islamic codes, women are forbidden to mingle with male spectators at sports facilities.

In a separate allegation, Mrs Moshtaghian said a mysterious visitor who described himself as Miss Ghavami's lawyer had tried to persaude her daughter to accept a guilty plea.

"A man who has introduced himself as Mr Dehlavi and a lawyer had gone to visit Ghoncheh in prison and had asked her to accept him as her lawyer.This man has told Ghoncheh that if she pleads guilty to the charges then he can help secure her release. Ghoncheh had not accepted his offer and later contacted us to find out if we had sent this person to visit her. My daughter was very angry and worried. I do not know how anyone can enter a prison cell without the consent of the prisoner or her relatives and tell her to agree with him becoming her lawyer without even knowing him. I have already filed a complaint against this man and will pursue my complaint.

"Ghonche has been put under pressure to accept her charge of propaganda against the regime. She had accepted it under duress during interrogations with the hope that she could then be released on bail but now she does not accept the charge any more."

Miss Ghavami, a 25-year-old law graduate of London university SOAS, began a hunger strike for her freedom at the weekend.

Mrs Moshtaghian, who was born in London and later moved to Iran where she met her surgeon husband, had already said she was fasting in solidarity with her daughter.

“I too am not going to eat until such a time that my Ghoncheh breaks her hunger strike. My God, you are a witness to how I kept my silence for 82 days so my innocent girl comes back home safely. But now that her health and life are in danger I am not going to sit in silence. Please God, end this nightmare for me. Please give me strength to save and release my darling child.”

Shiva Nazar Ahari, a leading rights activist, was among the women protesting alongside Miss Ghavami that day. She has written on her Facebook page that their demand simply was to be allowed to enter the stadium.

“We wanted to go to the stadium together. We wanted to go sit on those chairs to scream and cheer for our national team,” she wrote.

The protesters – who all wore white headscarves in defiance of rules demanding dark coloured hijabs – had tried to get through heavy security but were arrested. Miss Ghavami was then released on bail, but when she returned a week later to collect her belongings she was arrested and put into solitary confinement.

Iran’s judiciary denies the charges against Ms Ghavami concern the stadium visit, with spokesman Ghulam Hussein Mohseni Ejeyie saying last month that Miss Ghavami has been charged with “propaganda against the regime”.

Telegraph