Dressed in the uniform he wore in an Iranian prison courtroom, Anoosheh Ashoori completed a gruelling 26-mile run for the London marathon last Sunday.

The Lewisham resident was brutally incarcerated in Evin Prison, Tehran, under false accusations of spying for Israel, by the Iranian government. 

He was reunited with his family in March this year after nearly five years, alongside Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, another British Iranian national who had been detained for six years under similar pretences. Both have denied the accusations.

Ashoori’s experience was cruel and unjust – in the first part of his incarceration, he spent over 100 days in interrogation, which he says ‘mentally broke him’.

After this period of interrogation, Ashoori was transferred into the notorious hall number 12 in Evin Prison – a ‘dungeon’ block in which more than 65 people were detained, sometimes up to 15 in a room at a time. 

There, he joined a group of people doing daily exercises at the gym – a small outdoor exercise area, shadowed by tower blocks and prison fencing. He would have to run in circles on uneven and rocky terrain, slowly building up to longer distances. 

One day he ran for the entire two hours of allotted time. Afterwards, Ashoori treated everyone in his block to cake. 

“We had a small shop in hall 12. We could order cakes and they would deliver them after a few days.
All halls have little shops where you can use your debit card to purchase things that are allowed.”

He was called over by one of his inmates, a satirist, who had a book about marathon running for Ashoori called ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’ by Haruki Murakami.

“After reading that book, I just got the inspiration, and it became my dream that perhaps one day I could run the London Marathon, so I started carrying on with my exercises until I was released in March.”

When Ashoori returned home, he started training in his local parks in Lewisham. “That was the dream I had when I was running in circles in Evin prison. The smell of the grass, the fresh air in the park in London, in a local park, it was fantastic.”

Amnesty International, who was instrumental in the release of Ashoori, assigned professional coach, Benjamin Barwick, from running organisation Full Potential, to supervise Ashoori. Barwick supported Ashoori throughout his training, helping him with his degenerative knee condition so he could safely cross the finish line.

Ashoori raised over £20,000 in donations for Amnesty International and Hostage International and the donations are still flooding in. 

Ashoori initially dedicated his run to these charities and all those he was incarcerated alongside at Evin Prison. However, with recent events in Iran, Ashoori decided to dedicate his run to the plight of women in Iran.

“This [the protests] is the result of 43 years of tyranny and suppression”.

Iran is in the middle of an uprising fronted by women who have been suppressed by the Iranian regime. The movement started after the murder of Mahsa Amini, a 20-year old woman who was detained by the Iranian Morality Police. People from all over Iran have been protesting since the murder.

“This is a movement which is led by women, but it is not excluding men because men are actually behind them. You will see how men and women together are persevering toward the goal. That’s what makes it noble,” said Ashoori.

The daughter of Ashoori, Elika Ashoori, who has been radically vocal in her fight for the women of Iran, shared an open letter to her MP on Twitter.

On Friday morning she cut her hair live on ITV’s The Lorraine Show in support of Iran protests.

British-Iranian national Zaghari-Ratcliffe, released from prison alongside Ashoori, also recently cut off her hair, in support of the protests.  

On Sunday, Ashoori managed to finish the marathon in around five and a half hours. He crossed the line dressed in the same uniform he would wear when standing in front of the judges back in the courts of Tehran. He held a sign that said in Arabic and English: “WOMAN, LIFE, FREEDOM”.

“This is just the beginning,” he said. “I will not stop until everyone is released”.