“What would you do if you took your two gloomy and sad children to visit their mother in prison, after not seeing their innocent mother for 18 months, and the guard didn’t let your 12 year-old daughter enter because she didn’t have ‘a proper scarf’?!” wrote Reza Khandan on his Facebook status on February 22, 2012.

Khandan’s wife is Nasrin Sotoudeh, an Iranian lawyer who has been imprisoned for 18 months, without a single furlough. Khandan has been taking care of their two children, aged twelve and four.

He continued: “My daughter was wearing school clothes. How could it be an improper cover?! They sent my children outside to wait for a half hour in this cold weather. How would you feel if your kids had so many different reasons to cry?”  

His status received hundreds of likes, shares and comments, the majority expressing  sympathy for Khandan’s family and blaming the government for the cruel treatment of dissidents’ families.