Things aren’t looking good for American journalist Roxana Saberi, who was arrested and imprisoned in Iran earlier this year. Though they won’t say why they’ve taken her into custody, Iranian authorities finally confirmed this week that they’re keeping Saberi in the nation’s most notorious prison, Evin Prison, which has a reputation for being an especially brutal place for female prisoners.

Saberi, a 31-year-old American with an Iranian passport, was detained January 31 and has been granted only one brief phone call to her Iranian father, Reza Saberi, who lives in North Dakota. According to Ms. Saberi’s account, cops took her in after she bought a bottle of wine on the black market. The man who sold her the wine, she hypothesizes, called on security forces to arrest her. The Iranians haven’t given a specific reason for her detention, but intimated that they arrested Saberi because her press credentials had been revoked and thus her work was "illegal."

"The arrest (of Roxana Saberi) took place on a writ issued by the revolutionary court," judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters. "I do not know exactly what the accusations are."

Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday called for Saberi’s release, saying her arrest "is a violation of both Iranian law and international legal standards."

"Her lawyers must be told the reasons for her detention and must be allowed to visit her," the organization said. "We urge the Iranian authorities to say what charges have been brought against her and to release her pending an investigation, as laid down in the law."

Those working to get more information about Saberi’s detention say that it’s a good sign Iran has come out and acknowledged she is being held, but the fact that she’s at Evin prison — its brutality can be compared to that of the United States’s Guantanamo Bay — isn’t good news.

"Any political prisoner of any repute has been held [at Evin] since 1979 and the revolution onward, even before that," Mohamed Abdel Dayem, Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, told wOw. "It’s not a good place. We were hoping when we heard more about her we would not hear the word ‘Evin prison.’"

Iranian Canadian photojournalist Zahara Kasemi, who was arrested after taking pictures of a student protest, died in 2003 while being detained at Evin. The prison’s also the epicenter of crimes against women’s rights activists in Iran, and where California Iranian American university student Esha Momeni was held for a time. Momeni was in Iran visiting family and researching women’s rights when she was arrested last October. She was eventually released, but has since been banned from leaving the country.

While female journalists are not more likely than men to be arrested in the Middle East, they are more likely to be subjected to sexual abuse and other ill treatment than their male counterparts. It also appears Saberi, a former Miss North Dakota, will be tried by Iran’s Islamic revolutionary courts, which are essentially military tribunals presided over by a single judge with no appeals. By no means do they offer the due process we enjoy here in the United States. If she’s lucky, Saberi will get a lawyer, but even that’s uncertain.

The U.S. currently hasn’t had official diplomatic relations with Iran since 1979. The State Department has been relying on the Swiss to gather information on Saberi’s condition, but have come up empty-handed.

"If Ms. Saberi is being detained by Iranian authorities, we urge the government of Iran to provide access to legal advice, a transparent judicial process and consular access for a Swiss consular official," State Spokesman Gordon Duguid said Tuesday.