Jailed doctor Kylie Moore-Gilbert ‘an Iranian bargaining chip’

Avoiding assault and keeping her dignity will be Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s priorities amid brutal political games in Qarchak prison.

Melbourne academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert is in jail in Iran.

University of Melbourne academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert will be washing her own underwear and protectively sitting underneath it, watching it dry, and clutching any other possession around her, maybe a blanket.

Then, when she is able to sleep — squeezing a space on the overcrowded and filthy concrete floor among 2000 others — she may use her halting Persian language to find an older woman to look over her. And when she wakes, if she has been able to have a few ­uncomfortable hours asleep, it will be her turn to be a protector.

Avoiding being raped and ­viciously bashed, keeping her dignity and her meagre possessions will be Dr Moore-Gilbert’s priorities in the coming days as she ­adjusts to the brutal political games of her fellow female inmates in Iran’s Qarchak prison.

Dr Moore-Gilbert is two years into a 10-year sentence for “spying” after she was reported for asking ‘’suspicious’’ questions during an Iranian study tour in 2018.

Last week, Dr Moore-Gilbert was transferred to Qarchak from Iran’s equally notorious Evin prison, where an interlude from two year’s solitary confinement in unit 2A consisted of being blindfolded, taken down to a basement room and made to face a blank wall while being interrogated by male officials sitting behind her for up to 12 hours without a toilet break or a stretch of the legs.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert.

On Friday, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed that Lyndall Sachs, Australia’s ambassador to Iran, would be allowed to visit Dr Moore-Gilbert at Qarchak.

“Dr Moore-Gilbert’s case is one of the Australian government’s highest priorities, including for our Embassy officials in Tehran,” a spokeswoman said.

“We hold Iran responsible for Dr Moore-Gilbert’s safety and well-being.”

In Evin, Dr Moore-Gilbert was often allowed out into a tiny courtyard where she could see the sky for 30 minutes — that was until she climbed a fire escape, while blindfolded, and ended up on the prison roof.

Prison officials could only talk her down by promising a supply of fresh fruit and a phone call.

Her new prison is Qarchak, where she will be in solitary for a week and then thrown to the wolves of the overcrowded general prison population.

Iranian-British-Finnish student Ana Diamond believes that Dr Moore-­Gilbert has been incarcerated in Qarchak — known to Iranians as the “Damascus Market’’ because of its chaos, and also because of the evil games of the long-serving murderer inmates who act as an extension of the Revolutionary Guard’s savagery — as a form of punishment.

Ms Diamond knows exactly the terror, confusion and paranoia Dr Moore-Gilbert is facing, because she too was a political prisoner in solitary confinement in Evin jail in Tehran, facing the death penalty and enduring the terror of a mock execution, before being threatened with a stint in Qarchak back in 2016.

The notorious Qarchak prison, where Kylie Moore-Gilbert wis being held.

As a young supporter of the British Conservative Party, Ms Diamond had gone to Iran for a family get together, but her two-week trip ended up becoming a four-year nightmare.

She survived, as did her mother and father who were also jailed, because of political interventions by some well-connected family members and because her “offences against the state’’ occurred when she was aged under 18.

Now back in London, Ms Diamond is a founding member of Families Alliance Against State Hostage-Taking.

She said the Revolutionary Guards were engaging in “twisted and sick politics’’ towards Dr Moore-Gilbert, because from the outside world it would appear to be beneficial for her to mingle with other prisoners at Qarchak rather than endure more time in solitary confinement in Evin Prison.

“Qarchak is not a mingling place,’’ she said firmly. “Most of the political prisoners are sent there as a form of punishment. Anyone at any point there is subject to the most serious dangers.’’

Ana Diamond has spoken about her time spent in an Iranian prison.

Ms Diamond said the Iranian football fan Sahar Khodayari, who dressed as a man to watch her favourite football team, set herself on fire because she had been detained in Qarchak prison and couldn’t face going back there.

“The fact that women are willing to kill themselves rather than go back to Qarchak is telling,’’ said Ms Diamond.

“Kylie is a brave prisoner and she doesn’t always comply and she causes trouble; not many prisoners would climb onto a roof and the guards don’t like the trouble.’’

Ms Diamond believes Dr Moore-Gilbert was transferred to Qarchak to ensure she was distanced from any influence of other political prisoners in Evin, as well as being punished. But she said there were difficulties understanding Iran’s motivation for continuing to hold her.

Some activists believe Dr Moore-Gilbert was lured to Iran in the first place, enticing her with a study tour in 2018 and then following her movements throughout her stay, because she had previously published work on Shia influence in Bahrain.

Ms Diamond in a London hospital after her release. She still suffers heart problems as a result of her detention.

Others believe she is being punished for her British passport and the ongoing dispute involving a $400m payment Iran believes Britain owes it. Ms Diamond said Iran was in the habit of arresting dual nationals and accusing them of spycraft to spark a conversation about money.

“But even the most experienced analysts fail to understand what Iran wants from Australia,’’ she said.