A 25-year-old British woman was arrested for attempting to watch a men's volleyball match in Iran, The Independent reported. She has been confined in an Iranian prison for more than two months.
On June 20, more than a dozen women, including Ghoncheh Ghavami, were arrested when they tried to enter a 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 placed in solitary confinement for 41 days, her 28-year-old brother, Iman Ghavami, said.
"[The family] can barely hold themselves together," he told ITV News. "They are torn apart - not just my parents but my grandparents, my uncles, everybody."
Since then, her arrest has led to protests at other Iranian volleyball matches, with a Facebook campaign fighting to free her garnering almost 9,000 "likes."
Although the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was "aware of reports" of her imprisonment and was looking into them, their diplomatic powers were limited in Iran.
The ban, which 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."
In the past, however, foreign women bearing passports have been allowed to travel to Iran and watch volleyball matches.
"We're extremely worried about Ghoncheh's predicament," Amnesty International UK spokesperson Neil Durkin told UK MailOnline.
"She's been held in solitary for over a month in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison where she's been under the control of the country's Revolutionary Guards."
"Her lawyer has had no access to her or any documents about why she's being held, though we understand she's being investigated with a view to charging her with the extremely vague offence of "propaganda against the state," he continued. "Ghoncheh is a prisoner of conscience and should be released immediately."
The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office is reportedly looking into Ghavami's imprisonment, but has not made any statements.
Meanwhile, the victory of moderate President Hassan Rouhani in 2013 had given human right activists in Iran some hope of encouraging more liberal laws and a move towards equity, but Iranian religious leader and politician Ayatollah Khomeini has managed to hold a powerful religious establishment over the country.