Brother Of Imprisoned British-Iranian Woman Speaks Out: She Was Just Trying To Watch A Volleyball Game

Three months ago, 25-year-old Ghoncheh Ghavami headed to Tehran's Azadi stadium to support Iran's national men's volleyball team and left with handcuffs around her wrist.

Ghavami was initially arrested after the match on June 20 after having entered the Azadi stadium despite a ban on women entering such spaces. The BBC reported that while there was a peaceful protest that day against the ban on women entering the stadium, Ghavami's brother, Iman, said his sister wasn't involved. While Ghavami was quickly released after being detained, she was re-arrested several days later and charged with "propaganda against the regime."

Iman explained to HuffPost Live's Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had been lobbying publicly against the ban, as had the International Volleyball Federation.

On the day his sister was arrested this past June, Iman said there was a "general feeling" that everything had been resolved.

"There was actually something in the papers on that day and [Ghoncheh] bought the papers, took it to my parents, and they were kind of relieved that everything would be safe and she could just go in and watch the match," he said. "But then she was arrested."

For the first 11 days of Ghoncheh's three-month sentence in Tehran's Evin prison, the Ghavami family had no idea where she was. When the family found her a lawyer, Iman said, "she wasn’t allowed to see the lawyer and she [spent] 41 days in solitary only for trying to watch a volleyball match."

While Rouhani has been pushing for women to have more equal rights, Iman says in his opinion, the president hasn't done much so far.

Iman started a petition on Change.org , which now has almost 400,000 signatures. Amnesty International has also called for Ghavami's immediate release.

Watch the video above for more information on Ghoncheh Ghavami's case.

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