She has been held in Evin prison since June 6 on the charges on national security for her academic work.

The human rights advocates state that Hoodfar’s academic work does not pose a threat to Iranian security and she should be released.

Their statement read: “We stress that Iran is breaching its national constitutional principles by arbitrarily arresting and detaining people for simply expressing their opinion and conducting academic research, as is their professional right and duty.”

Her family revealed that the Iranian probe into the retired professor’s work to improve the world for women and girls.

The investigators state that Iran is violating its own laws in detaining her.

They wrote: “It is unclear how ‘feminism’ is a threat to Iranian national security, given that Iran has committed itself to the Sustainable Development Goal #5, which is gender equality.”

The judge in Hoodfar’s case refused to accept her choice of lawyer and appointed one of his own.

Hoodfar has a severe neurological condition but the Iranian authorities are refusing to allow an independent specialist to check in on her.

Almost 5,000 academics have signed a petition demanding her release and some staged a protest outside the Iranian Embassy in Dublin last week.