Kylie Moore-Gilbert
Kylie Moore-Gilbert is an Australian-British academic and expert on Islamic studies. Currently imprisoned in Iran for ten years under a charge of espionage, she was previously a lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute. She has carried out research into revolutions in the Middle East, in particular Bahraini politics and protests.[1][2]
Kylie Moore-Gilbert | |
---|---|
Citizenship | Australian, British |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Wolfson College, Cambridge, University of Melbourne |
Thesis | Shiʿi opposition and authoritarian transition in contemporary Bahrain: the shifting political participation of a marginalised majority (2017) |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of Melbourne |
Moore-Gilbert denies the charges the Iranian government made against her, and no evidence about her alleged crimes have ever been made public. The Australian government has rejected the charges as "baseless and politically motivated".[3]
Life and career
Moore-Gilbert graduated from All Saints' College in Bathurst in 2005. She studied Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge and graduated with first class honours in 2013. In 2017, she obtained a PhD for a thesis entitled Shiʿi opposition and authoritarian transition in contemporary Bahrain: the shifting political participation of a marginalised majority at the University of Melbourne in 2017.[1][4] She is currently Melbourne Early Career Academic Fellow and Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Asia Institute of the University of Melbourne.[5]
Detention in Iran
The intelligence arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps arrested her in September 2018 at Tehran Airport as she was leaving the country after attending a conference. She was flagged as “suspicious” by a fellow academic and by a subject she interviewed for her research. She was subsequently tried and sentenced to ten years in prison for espionage. She was held in Evin Prison, reportedly in solitary confinement.[1] Iranian authorities tried to recruit her as a spy in exchange for her release, which she declined.[6][7]
On 28 July 2020, Moore-Gilbert is said to have been transferred to Gharchak Women's Prison (Shahr-e Rey prison, also known as “Qarchak Women’s Prison“ or Varamin prison).[8] In a phone call with Reza Khandan, the husband of jailed human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, Moore-Gilbert said she felt hopeless and isolated. “I can’t eat anything. I feel so very hopeless,” Moore-Gilbert said, speaking Persian on the call. “I am so depressed. I don’t have any phone card to call. I’ve asked the prison officers but they didn’t give me a phone card. I [was last able to] call my parents about one month ago.”[9]
Since being jailed, she has been in several hunger strikes and in solitary confinement. She also says she was beaten for trying to comfort new prisoners.[10]
References
- "'She's not a spy': friends shocked over academic Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert's jailing in Iran". The Guardian. 16 September 2019.
- "Kylie Moore-Gilbert named as woman sentenced to 10 years' jail in Iran". The Sydney Morning Herald. 14 September 2019.
- "Kylie Moore-Gilbert: academic 'terrified' and suffering inside Iran's Qarchak women's prison".
- "University of Melbourne: Asia Institute -- Theses". Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- "University of Melbourne: Find an expert". Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- "Jailed British-Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert rejected Iran's offer to work as a spy". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- "Kylie Moore-Gilbert, jailed academic, 'rejected Iran's offer to become spy'". BBC. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- "Kylie Moore-Gilbert: Lecturer jailed in Iran 'moved to remote prison'". BBC. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
- Vasefi, Saba; Doherty, Ben (2020-07-28). "Kylie Moore-Gilbert: British-Australian academic moved to notorious Iran desert prison". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
- "Kylie Moore-Gilbert: Australia says lecturer jailed in Iran 'is well'". BBC. Retrieved 6 August 2020.