A woman named Ghoncheh Ghavami is currently languishing - though hardly an appropriate phrase - in a stinking Iranian jail for the heinous crime of trying to watch an international volleyball match in Tehran.
 
Words fail me - almost.

I can think of a few choice ones to describe those responsible for imposing such scandalous punishment. Despicable and despotic don't even come close.

The 25-year-old law student, who is British-Iranian (though dual nationality is not recognised in Iran) was arrested in June after attending an International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) World League match between Iran and Italy.

She was among a group of women who had peacefully gathered asking that females should be allowed in to watch such events only to be arrested and allegedly beaten before being freed.

Ms Ghavami was re-arrested later and subsequently put on trial accused of "spreading propaganda". 

Women are banned from attending men's sports events in Iran, as they are in a number of similarly chauvinistic countries who attempt to hide their medieval prejudices behind a cloak of religion and culture.

I recall attending the multi-nation Islamic Games in Saudi Arabia where women were not only barred from competing but watching or reporting!

It was like being in Ancient Greece - only the men weren't naked.

Ghoncheh Ghavami was in prison for more than 120 days before her one year prision sentence was revealed by her lawyer ©Amnesty International




Ms Ghavami was in prison for more than 120 days before news of her year-long sentence was revealed. She is now said to be on hunger strike after being held in solitary confinement in Tehran's infamous Evin Prison.

She has told her lawyer that during her prolonged isolation, interrogators put her under psychological pressure, threatening to move her to the even more notorious Gharchak Prison where hardened criminals are held in awful conditions. They told her she "would not walk out of prison alive". 

Yet in some respects this sporting suffragette is lucky. Had the incident happened in Saudi Arabia she'd probably have been given 100 lashes too.

Iran barred women from volleyball games in 2012, extending a long-standing ban on football matches and other sports. The authorities argued that women need protection from 'the lewd behaviour of male fans.'

Clubs in Italy's League Series A and the Super League have held protests against Ghavami's arrest by holding up banners before their matches calling for her to be freed.

Clubs in Italy have held protests over Ghoncheh Ghavami's imprisonment by holding up banners before matches calling for her release ©Facebook



Amnesty International has described Ms Ghavami, who is from Shepherd's Bush in West London, and a graduate of the University of London, as a prisoner of conscience, and called for her immediate release.

More than 700,000 people have signed an online petition urging this, while naturally Britain's Foreign Office johnnies are now ringing their hands and expressing their "concern".

As for sport's international governing bodies - well true to form they just seem to be sitting on theirs.

This appalling case has been largely under-reported in the national and international media and it has taken publicity and pressure from insidethegames to prod a reluctant FIVB into some sort of meaningful action.

Now, following Nick Butler's exclusive story that they would not award any further events under their jurisdiction to Iran until Ms Ghavami is freed and the ban on women attending matches is lifted, FIVB say Iran will no longer host the 2015 Boys' Under-19 World Championships, which instead will be held in Argentina. They have also written to Iran's President. Good luck with that.

So consider Iranian wrists suitably slapped.

The phrase too little too late comes to mind.

FIVB President Ary S Graca sent a letter to Human Rights Watch before an October meeting explaining that he had written to the President of Iran asking for Ghoncheh Ghavami's release ©Human Rights Watch



So far the FIVB have made no move to shift next year's World League fixtures from Iran as it is not terribly convenient to do so, and claim they have no influence over next year's Asian Volleyball Championships which have been awarded Tehran.

Why not? Is it not the purpose of a governing body to govern?

Which brings us to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Just what are they doing about it?

Not very much its seems. As per usual when matters of discrimination arise.

Oh yes, they've written a letter to Iran's National Olympic Committee seeking further information. But what more do they need?

A letter? Iran has no IOC member but why have Messrs Kiumars Hashem and Shakrok Shahnazi, listed as Iranian NOC President and secretary-general respectively, not been hauled before the IOC Executive Board and warned that unless this shameful wrong is righted Iran will be suspended from the Olympic Movement with immediate effect.

For Iran has previous. There have been a number of occasions in international competition, including the London Olympics, when Iranians have been drawn against Israeli opponents and told to feign injury or illness rather than compete.

Clearly the soft-softly diplomatic approach doesn't work with such intransigent bigots.

It is time the IOC stopped being so pusillanimous over such issues which defile international sport. And this latest one is particularly odious.

Iran, and those other nations which practise such intolerance contravene the very spirit of Olympism. If they refuse to play by the rules of a club which claims to demand equality they should be kicked out.

Let the IOC and other sports bodies recall Nelson Mandela's wise words: "Sport has the power to change the world."

Sport was largely responsible for hammering the final nail into the coffin of apartheid in South Africa once they had been made the pariahs of international competition.

What is happening in Iran now is simply another form of apartheid, and one which requires to be similarly and summarily stamped out.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.