Dokouhaki denied family visit as Rasouli black-out continues

There is a sense of growing urgency as the silence about the detained Iranian journalist, Marzieh Rasouli continues.

It's ten days now since Rasouli, held in solitary confinement by the Revolutionary Guards, last made contact with her family from Evin prison. That, in fact, was her first, on the day following her arrest (17 January). Since then, all attempts by her family to meet the judge in charge of her case to obtain more details has been futile, and thus far they have been kept in the dark even about the well-being of their loved one.

Parastoo Dokouhaki, who was arrested at her family home two days before Rasouli on 15 January, has been in touch with her family, yet there's no less concern as they have been told -- on Thursday -- that Parastoo cannot have any visits until the interrogations end and investigations come to conclusion.

This is despite the fact that no official comment has been made about her case; nor about Rasouli and Saham Bourghani, a photo-journalist detained roughly at the same time, for that matter.

Human rights organisations, the EU Parliament, as well as the US Department of State and the UK Foreign Office, have condemned these arrests as a cynical attempt to "cut-off" free flow of information in the run-up to Iran's Parliamentary elections in March.