Susan Hassanzadeh, a civil rights activist and Kurdish language teacher, has been detained for 23 days without family visits or legal counsel in the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province.

A source who spoke to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said: “Since Ms Hassanzadeh’s arrest, she has had only one brief phone call with her family, informing them that she is being held in solitary confinement in a security detention centre in Orumiyeh.”

Her family has made several visits to the court and security authorities in Bukan, West Azerbaijan Province, seeking information about her status, but have received no clear answers, the source said.

Hassanzadeh, a resident of Bukan, was beaten and arrested by security forces on a street in the city on 15 May.

A Kurdish language teacher for 17 years in Bukan and nearby villages, she has been repeatedly summoned and interrogated by the security services in recent years for her activism.

Pressure on Kurdish language activists has increased recently, with more summonses, arrests and prison sentences.

In late April, Soma Pourmohammadi, another Kurdish language teacher and board member of the Nozhin Socio-Cultural Association, was sentenced to 10 years’ exile in Kermanshah Prison by Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, for “forming groups and associations to disrupt national security”.