In the ancient Iranian city of Kerman, Venus Hosseini-Nejad expresses herself through art, with messages of love, hope and unity.
But for more than four weeks she's been unable to practice her art.
The 28-year-old was arrested on January 15, and her family have not seen her since.
Relatives who have spoken to ABC News say plain-clothes security forces, without presenting a judicial warrant and while filming her, forcibly placed her in a vehicle and took her away.
"Her family is really concerned about her mental health state," says Negar Manshady, who lives in Perth and is Ms Hosseini-Nejad's distant cousin.
Ms Hosseini-Nejad has bipolar disorder and has been taking medication for 12 years.
Her family fears she will not get proper medical attention in prison.
She remains held at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Intelligence Detention Centre, with her family getting little word of her situation and fearing she could, at any moment, be transferred to a prison where she might be executed.
"There have been multiple requests [from her family] to visit her, [but] they [Iran's authorities] haven't allowed that," Ms Manshady said.
On February 1, their hearts sank when Iran's state broadcaster, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, aired her and other youths participating in what human rights groups have described as "forced confessions".
Her family say the "confession" by Ms Hosseini-Nejad was extracted under pressure from interrogator Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour and broadcast on television.
"Interrogator journalists" working in Iran's state-run media, including Zabihpour, were sanctioned by the US Government in November 2022.
"Zabihpour, as the head of the foreign Persian language media group at IRIB, also has a long history of direct involvement in the broadcast of coerced confessions of dual nationals, civil society activists, political prisoners, writers, and religious minorities," the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement after the death-in-custody of Mahsa Jina Amini sparked the #WomenLifeFreedom protests.
Zabihpour was also sanctioned by Australia's government in September 2023.
What was aired on that state TV broadcast were so-called "confessions" from Ms Hosseini-Nejad, along with other detainees including Peyvand Naeimi, 30 and Shayan Shakibayi, 29.
Their faces were blurred, and their families say their words were scripted by interrogators, who coerced them into confessing to having organised the mass protests that swept Iran in late December and early January.
US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has estimated more than 7,000 people have been killed and there have been almost 54,000 arrests in this wave of protests.
A group of doctors in Iran reported in late January that there could have been as many as 30,000 people killed by the regime over two days of protests alone.
Iran's state TV claims at odds with families' reports
According to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights, state media aired their "confessions" to being members of an online network called "Ma" (We) which is described as "satanic" and under the influence of Israel.
Ms Hosseini-Nejad and Mr Naeimi's relatives have told ABC News that they were never involved in such activities, or in the mass protests that swept the country in early January.
They say that as members of the Baha'i' religious minority, whose members for decades have faced persecution in Iran, these youths are being falsely accused and used as scapegoats.
Mr Naeimi's family say he was arrested by "plain-clothes agents" at his workplace on January 8.
"They arrived at his workplace with two cars without any arrest warrant," says Mr Naeimi's cousin in Canada, Rozhin Rasekhi, who says she has known him since she was 10 years old.
"They first wanted to take his phone, Peyvand did not give his phone, and they forcibly took the phone from him and then they forcibly took him as well," she said.
"Peyvand is innocent. He hasn't done anything wrong."
'They just put her in a car and they took her'
Ms Hosseini-Nejad told her parents she had made the confessions under pressure and with the promise that she would be released in three days.
But that promise that was not kept, and her family now fear her life is at serious risk.
"They just put her in a car and they took her — the family had no idea what was happening with her and where she was going and why she was being taken until many days later," Ms Manshady told ABC News.
She says the accusation Ms Hosseini-Nejad was taken from a "team house" and that she was an organiser behind the January protests is "completely false".
She says her cousin was arrested just for being a member of the Baha'i faith — the largest non-Muslim religious minority.
The Baha'is have faced ongoing persecution since the 1979 revolution according to numerous human rights groups.
Shia Islam is the state religion. While the constitution recognises several minority faiths, including Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism, the Baha'i faith is not accepted.
United Nations experts describe the Baha’i community as "among the most severely persecuted religious minorities in Iran".
"Iranian authorities have ramped up threats and arrests of Bahá'ís in the wave of recent protests through state propaganda spreading false accusation," says Australian Baha'i Community spokeswoman Awa Momtazian.
"They are often among the first to be accused of false allegations, scapegoated and targeted through coordinated disinformation and hate campaigns."
She called for the international community, including the Australian government, to help these youths, as well as ensure "justice for all the people of Iran".
Ms Manshady says that under Iran's regime, Ms Hosseini-Nejad could not go to university and instead was keeping herself busy with her art and by learning how to be a swimming instructor.
"She was just trying to do her best to live in a country she loved even though she's had opportunities to go [live] abroad," she said.
Ms Hosseini-Nejad's US-based cousin Tara Wiedemann also rejects the claim by Iran's authorities that she was involved in the recent protest.
The last time Ms Wiedemann spent time with her cousin in Iran was about 12 years ago, before she left to move to Seattle.
Ms Wiedemann says what her cousin is being accused of is not who she is, and it's "really disheartening for her family, in fact heartbreaking".
"We feel like we don't have a lot of control over this situation, other than telling her story, other than asking the world to be her voice," she said, noting a petition circulating to save her life and to put pressure on governments to act.
"As much as we don't want to say these things, she is at risk of execution. We are deeply worried about what could happen to her," Ms Wiedemann said.
'We are worried for his life': The case of Peyvand Naeimi
The exact charges that Peyvand Naeimi faces are yet to be laid, but Iran Human Rights says that among the allegations that surfaced in the forced confession broadcast, the youths were accused links to "Zionist networks," "Satanism," "planning violent acts," and "organising protests".
Mr Naemi's family have told ABC News there is no way he would be capable of such things.
"He loves animals, he's a dog trainer, and I'm really worried for his life right now," Ms Rasekhi says.
Mr Naeimi has been denied a lawyer and, she claims, that "there has been no due process".
She says since he was a child, he has been subject of persecution just for being a Baha'i.
"Since childhood [he] was an amazing swimmer," she recalls.
"Later, he had a championship in both swimming and water polo, and he was chosen for national and international competition.
"But every single time, just right before the competition, he came to know that someone else is replacing him."
Three days after his arrest Mr Naeimi had a short phone call with his parents, but it wasn't until 19 days after when his parents learned that he is being held at one of the IRGC detention centres in Kerman.
"His phone calls up to now, have been very short, 30 seconds, one minute," Ms Rasekhi said.
"On the 19th day when he called his parents, he was clearly under extreme pressure. And he was threatened with execution.
"He said, and I'm quoting this, 'I am exhausted. I will cooperate with them. I will do whatever they want and say whatever they want. Even if they want to execute me, let them execute me so that I can be relieved'.
"And then he says [to his parents], 'you should not be upset either. My soul will be freed from the cage of my body'.
Just a few days after these two phone calls, the video of the forced confession of Mr Naeimi was broadcast.
"Peyvand is not part of any organisation — he's not violent. Peyvand is very kind," Ms Rasekhi said.
On February 5 he again spoke to his mother.
"He was speaking very frantically and loudly and very nervous," Ms Rasekhi explains.
"He did not let his mom talk and said, 'listen to what I'm saying. The same love with which you raised me is in my heart. And I am very grateful to you'. … And then he says 'I've done nothing wrong. I've done nothing wrong. I've committed no crime, and I have entrusted everything to God'."
Mr Naeimi also has another distant cousin living in Melbourne, Emilia Nazari.
She says the things they accuse him of in the broadcast — "Devil worship and Zionism" — are "just completely nonsensical" but that collaboration, or espionage, is a very serious charge in Iran.
She says after the forced confessions were aired on state TV, Mr Naeimi's family were contacted and told over the phone that, for now, he would face two charges: "assembly and collusion against national security" and "propaganda against the Islamic Republic".
But Ms Nazari fears what could come next may be far worse.
Iran Human Rights says while murder cases typically fall within the jurisdiction of criminal courts, in the wake of the latest protests authorities have transferred many proceedings to Revolutionary Courts by recharacterising alleged killings as national security offences, including moharebeh (enmity against God) and efsad fil-arz (corruption on earth).
Once a case is treated as a national security matter, defendants lose the right to have lawyers of their choice, like both youths in these cases have.
"We want the international community to put more pressure on the Iranian government," Ms Nazari says.
"We want all these detainees to be released."
