"She wants to show us that she's holding up, she wants to reassure us. But we can sense that her despair is deepening, and from the way she talks and expresses herself, we can feel that she is losing hope of ever getting out," explains Noemie Kohler, sister of Cecile Kohler, a French teacher arrested in Iran with her partner in May 2022. The couple are being held separately in Tehran's high-security Evin prison, and their families hear very little from them, with telephone calls lasting only a few minutes. Paris describes these prisoners as "state hostages". IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES