The owners of Tehran’s Aun Gallery, Iranian-American Karan Vafadari and his wife Afarin Niasari, were arrested several months ago, jailed in the notorious Evin Prison and have now been formally charged with attempting to overthrow the government, along with other crimes, reports Artforum.

Arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization last July at Tehran’s airport, the couple's plight has not been widely known since their family kept it quiet in the hope of a resolution. The family changed their mind when demands ensued for money.

Vafadari's U.S-based sister blogged: ‘Their arrest and detention is a blow to religious freedom. It is an attack on citizens’ private lives. It is in the opposite direction of Iran’s right to self-determination and its road to national independence’.