Two academics, one from the prestigious Paris Sciences Po school of political sciences, the other from Melbourne University’s Asia Institute, are currently detained in atrocious conditions in separate prisons in Iran. Anthropologist Fariba Adelkhah, who has joint French-Iranian nationality, is serving a five-year sentence at the notorious Evin prison in Tehran for allegedly violating the country’s national security, and Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a lecturer in Islamic studies with joint British-Australian nationality, is serving a ten-year sentence for alleged espionage at Iran’s harshest women’s prison located in desert land south of the capital. Both strongly proclaim their innocence, but appear trapped in what their colleagues believe is a ruthless game of hostage taking and prisoner swaps. Jean-Pierre Perrin reports.
When news does emerge from those held within Iranian prisons it is often miserable, as the family and friends of Fariba Adelkhah know only too well. The Paris-based anthropologist of French-Iranian dual nationality is being held in atrocious conditions in the notorious Evin prison in the outskirts of Tehran. Meanwhile, the detention conditions are even worse for Australian-British academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was recently moved from Evin to Qarchak, regarded as the harshest women’s prison in Iran, located in an area of desert south of the capital.
