But Mr. Derakhshan, who blogged under the pen name Hoder, became a contentious figure for Iran’s opposition bloggers in the years before his arrest.

“If the city of Aberdeen gets that land, hopefully we can make something out of it like a ship-maintenance dock,” Hoder said.

As Randye Hoder making her teenage son sandwiches all the time has “enabled his helplessness,” and trapped her in a cycle of endless sandwich-making.