London: A British woman has been released from jail in Iran after five months behind bars for demanding the right to watch a men’s volleyball match.
Ghoncheh Ghavami, 26, a University of London graduate with dual Iranian citizenship, was detained after protesting with a group of women outside Tehran’s Azadi stadium.
They were demanding to be allowed in to watch a men’s volleyball match - legal in Iran but, by custom, not permitted.
Ghavami, from Shepherd’s Bush in west London, was given a one-year sentence and banned from leaving Iran for two years.
But yesterday she was freed from Gharchak prison in Tehran province on bail of £20,000 and returned to her parents’ home in the Iranian capital.
Her brother Iman, describing her release as unexpected, said she would be undergoing medical checks because doctors feared she might have damaged her health by going on repeated hunger strikes.
Earlier this month, an Iranian prosecutor said she had been jailed not for wanting to watch volleyball, but because of contact with opposition political figures.
Her mother Susan Moshtaghian wrote on Facebook yesterday that she had been bailed pending an appeal court hearing.
Ghavami’s local MP, Andy Slaughter, said: "With the family, I will be meeting the Foreign Office minister this week to discuss what more the UK government can do."
