Jailed academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert ‘never took risks’

Kylie Moore-Gilbert is no maverick and suffering in an Iranian jail only because of ‘hostage diplomacy,’ a colleague insists.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert appearing on The Modern Middle East cr Facebook.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert is no maverick, one of her close academic colleagues has revealed, insisting the Australian academic is battling to survive in an Iranian jail for ten years convicted of spying, only because of “hostage diplomacy’’.

Melbourne-based Middle East researcher Dara Conduit has known Dr Moore-Gilbert since 2016 when both were finishing PhDs and she insists Dr Moore-Gilbert never took risks.

Ms Conduit is the first friend in Twitter campaign @FreeKylieMG to reveal aspects of Dr Moore-Gilbert’s talents in a bid to keep the spotlight on her dire situation in Qarchak prison in the Iranian desert.

Please read this important thread about who Kylie Moore-Gilbert is, why her work is so impressive, and about the sobering fact that anyone of us could find ourselves in her dreadful situation. https://t.co/sSpmSxucGP

— Sarah Phillips (@DrSarahPhillips) August 18, 2020

The Australian revealed last month that Dr Moore-Gilbert believed she had been moved from solitary confinement in the notorious Evin Prison to the infamous women’s jail in Qarchak, “as punishment’’ and she was so ill, she was struggling to eat.

Dr Conduit said: “As a person, Kylie is also kind, reserved and down to earth, and cares so deeply for the communities she researches. She is no maverick – it was such a shock to find out that she’d been arrested because she was so careful.’’

She added of her friend: “She never took risks, which is one of the things that is so upsetting about this. It’s all so arbitrary. She did nothing wrong. The scary thing is that what happened to Kylie could happen to any of us, whether we’re academic researchers or holiday-makers.

She poses no threat to Iran. She’s a victim of hostage diplomacy, a policy that Iran has enacted since the 1979 revolution.’’

Kylie Moore-Gilbert. Picture: University of Melbourne.

Dr Conduit said that since 2016, Iran had taken at least 13 foreign and dual national academics and students hostage in order to extract concessions from their home governments.

She said: “’The question for us now is, how can we mobilise pressure on the Australian government to do more to bring Kylie home?’’

Dr Moore-Gilbert, originally from Bathurst NSW, was arrested at Tehran airport in September 2018 as she readied to board her flight back to Melbourne after an Iranian study tour where she was invited to speak.

The initial shock of her arrest has turned to horror about her current situation and her friends are pleading for the Australian government to take a stronger public stance with Iran about Dr Moore-Gilbert’s treatment.

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been imprisoned in Iran as a political hostage for 704 days now. ‘Quiet diplomacy’ has not worked - more effort & resources are needed. https://t.co/TXiIb1w3pK

— Dr Hannah Robert (@Hannah_S_Robert) August 18, 2020

The Free Kylie group says the Australian government’s quiet diplomatic approach has so far won it very little leverage and her situation has gone from bad to worse.

“We have a lot in common – we’re both females in a very male-dominated field, which is as unglamorous as it sounds,’’ Dr Conduit said.

“We’re both annoyingly detail-oriented and committed to doing our absolute best (which our critics might deride as perfectionism!

“And we’re both passionate about our work and making sure that our research has a real-world application. Neither of us are ivory tower academics.’’

Dr Conduit first met Dr Moore-Gilbert when she presented her studies at a conference she was running. “I was blown away by how clever she was. She was easily the most talented person in our graduating cohort, and has such a bright future ahead of her. She contributed a fantastic chapter to a book I co-edited. She hasn’t seen the hard copy yet because it was released a couple of months after she was imprisoned.’’