A 25-year-old British-Iranian woman who was arrested for attempting to watch a men's volleyball match in Iran is "excited and relieved" that she is being released on bail from prison a day before her 26th birthday, NBC News reported.
As talks between Iran and the West to resolve a dispute over Tehran's nuclear program continue to take place, Ghavami has finally been released after spending 149 days in detention.
On June 20, more than a dozen women, including Ghoncheh Ghavami, were arrested when they tried to enter Tehran's Freedom Stadium to watch the Iranian national men's team play against Italy.
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, a law was introduced which banned women from watching male sports publicly since men would not be considered fully dressed, deemed to be un-Islamic.
Although Ghavami was released from custody, she was arrested days later when she went back to collect her belongings from the prison. This time, however, she was transferred to Tehran's notorious Evin jail, which is known for holding political prisoners and journalists.
Ghavami, a budding lawyer who studied in London and has dual Iranian and British nationality, allegedly contacted her family in distress, claiming that she had been accused of "propaganda against the state" and placed in solitary confinement.
Since the news of her release, it has been alleged that the 25-year-old will be staying with her parents in the Iranian capital pending a decision by the Court of Appeal on her sentence, according to Sky News.
"They are all over the moon right now, especially my mum, who has had the toughest time in the past five months," her 28-year-old brother, Iman Ghavami, said of the family's reaction.
"I also spoke with her just for a few seconds and she was sounding quite excited and relieved she was going to be free."
While in prison, Ghavami had been on hunger strike at least twice and campaigners including Amnesty International had called for her release, with hundreds of thousands of people signing an online petition.
She was "a prisoner of conscience, punished simply for calling for equality," a spokesperson for Amnesty said.
Meanwhile, the ban, which also extends to female journalists, has been lifted in exceptional circumstances but hardliners have said it is needed to protect women from "lewd behavior," according to The Independent.
"In the current conditions, the mixing of men and women in stadiums is not in the public interest," said Iran's head of police, Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam, according to the Fars news agency.
"The stance taken by religious scholars and the supreme leader remains unchanged, and as the enforcer of law, we cannot allow women to enter stadiums."
