Jailed London Woman On Hunger Strike

6 October 2014, 10:58 | Updated: 6 October 2014, 11:01

A woman from west London has gone on hunger strike after being sent to prison in Iran for attending a men's volleyball match.

25-year-old Ghoncheh Ghavami, from Shepher's Bush, has been detained in the Evin jail in Tehran for the last 100 days.

Her mother Susan Moshtaghian confirmed her daughter's protest in an emotional update on a Facebook page set up to campaign for her release.

She wrote: "Yesterday, I finally saw my Ghoncheh. She said she's been on a hunger strike since Wednesday. God, I can't breathe...

"She said that she's fed up with this 100 day uncertainty. It's been a while that she has no more interrogations but her detention has not ended.

"That she's been banned from visits for no reason for 19 days.

"Ghoncheh said that she can't tolerate this any longer and she's on a hunger strike.

"I will not touch food either until the day that my Ghoncheh will break her hunger strike. God, you've been my witness, I have remained silent for 82 days so that my innocent daughter returns home.

"She hasn't returned and now her life and health is in danger. I will no longer sit silently. God end this nightmare."

Women have been banned from attending volleyball matches in stadia in Iran since 2012, according to Amnesty International.

Ms Ghavami, who has dual British-Iranian citizenship, was in the country to work for a charity teaching literacy to street children and to visit relatives when she was arrested.

She was first held after the match, which took place on June 20, before being released but she was then re-arrested a few days later.

A petition set up on online campaigning platform Change.org to appeal for her release has now been signed by more than half a million people.