France has demanded immediate consular access to a senior French-Iranian academic who has been arrested in Iran, reports The Guardian.
Fariba Adelkhah, a prominent researcher in anthropology and social sciences based at the Paris political institute Sciences Po, is believed to have been arrested in June.
The detention risks increasing tension between Paris and Tehran at a critical moment in the crisis over Iran’s nuclear deal. European foreign ministers were meeting in Brussels on Monday in an attempt to preserve the deal, which the US abandoned unilaterally a year ago leading to an accelerating reciprocal withdrawal by Iran.
The French foreign ministry said it had not yet been given “satisfactory” information on the status of Adelkhah, who is seen as one of France’s top academics on Iran.
“The French authorities were recently informed of the arrest of Fariba Adelkhah,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “France calls on the Iranian authorities to shed full light on Mrs Adelkhah’s situation and repeats its demands, particularly with regard to an immediate authorisation for consular access. No satisfactory response has been received until now.”
Adelkhah is best known for her book Being Modern in Iran, about changes in the country after the 1979 Islamic revolution.