She heard officers threatening and verbally abusing him in the next cell

Ms Iraee's husband Arash Sadeghi is also locked up in Tehran's Evin Prison

Amnesty said she is 'being punished for using her imagination'

An Iranian woman has been sentenced to six years in prison after authorities found an unpublished story she wrote about women being stoned to death.

Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee, a writer and human rights activist, has been convicted of 'insulting Islamic sanctities' because of her fictional story.

Under Shari'a law in Iran stoning is the punishment outlined for adultery.

The story describes a woman who watches the film 'The Stoning of Soraya M' - which tells the true story of a young woman stoned to death for adultery - and becomes so enraged that she burns a copy of the Qur'an.

'She is effectively being punished for using her imagination,' Philip Luther, Amnesty's Director of Research and Advocacy for the Middle East and North Africa, said.

Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee (pictured here with her husband), a writer and human rights activist, has been convicted of 'insulting Islamic sanctities' because of her fictional story about stoning

The story was discovered by the authorities on 6 September 2014 by men believed to be members of the Revolutionary Guards.

The men showed no arrest warrant but searched Ms Iraee and her husband Arash Sadeghi's home, rifling through their possessions and seizing their laptops, notebooks and some CDs.

Mr Sadeghi was sent to Tehran's Evin Prison and Ms Iraee to a secret detention place.

She was kept there for the night and then transferred to a section of Evin Prison that is under the control of the Revolutionary Guard, where she was held for 20 days.

Ms Iraee said that during this time she was subjected to long hours of interrogations while blindfolded and facing a wall, and that interrogators repeatedly told her that she could face execution for 'insulting Islam'.

Her husband Arash Sadeghi (left) was also arrested and is now serving a 15-year prison sentence in Evin Prison on charges including 'spreading propaganda against the system'

She could reportedly also clearly hear interrogators threatening and verbally abusing her husband in the next cell, adding to her distress.

On Tuesday, Ms Iraee received a phone call ordering her to present herself to Evin Prison to begin serving her six-year prison sentence for 'insulting Islamic sanctities' and 'spreading propaganda against the system'.

Amnesty is urging the Iranian authorities to immediately repeal her conviction and sentence.

'Instead of imprisoning a young woman for peacefully exercising her human rights by expressing her opposition to stoning, the Iranian authorities should focus on abolishing this punishment, which amounts to torture. It is appalling that Iran continues to allow the use of stoning, and justifies it in the name of protecting morality,' Mr Luther said.