British-Iranian academic jailed in Iran tells of escape through mountains to return to UK

Dual British-Iranian national Kameel Ahmady fled Iran after being sentenced for 'conspiring with hostile foreign powers'

Credit: Handout 

A British-Iranian anthropologist who was sentenced to over nine years in prison in Tehran for his “subversive” research has returned to the UK after fleeing Iran in a daring escape across the mountainous border to Turkey.

Kameel Ahmady, an academic renowned for researching child brides and female genital mutilation (FGM) in Iran, was arrested in August 2019 and sentenced last November for "seeking to undermine Iran" by advocating an increase to the legal age for marriage. 

Mr Ahmady, who had been free on bail, has told the Guardian how fled the country and is now living in London after losing hope that his appeal would be granted after already having spent over 100 days in the notorious Evin prison.

“Once I had been sentenced I had a choice of whether I would stay and not see my family and four-year-old child until he was 14, or to risk fleeing,” he told the newspaper.

An ethnic Kurd from Iran’s West Azerbaijan province, Mr Ahmady said he had knowledge of the mountain routes used by Kurdish porters who smuggle contraband cigarettes, alcohol and other goods into Iran from Turkey.  

He said his escape took several attempts to evade border guards and cross snow-choked mountain passes in freezing conditions, carrying just his laptop and research papers.

Mr Ahmady then returned to the UK, where he was granted citizenship after first travelling there as a teenager.

Iran has detained several dual nationals in recent years, including charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, in what critics say amounts to a campaign of state-sponsored hostage-taking. 

Mr Ahmady said he believes this was the real reason for his arrest, which came shortly after British marines helped seize the Iranian oil tanker Grace 1 off Gibraltar in July 2019.

After the vessel was released, Mr Ahmday said his guards thanked him, suggesting they viewed him as valuable collateral. “Britain is the cradle of human rights so of course you are worth a lot to them,” his captors reportedly told him.

In 2015, Mr Ahmady first revealed the extent of FGM in Iran in a study suggesting tens of thousands of woman have undergone the controversial procedure.  He said his research had long made him a target of authorities, who sought to portray him as working for outside powers. 

At the time of his sentencing, Iranian outlet Tasnim reported that “Ahmady was accused of acquiring illicit property from his cooperation in implementing subversive institutions’ projects in the country.”