Australian Academic Recounts Her Ordeal In Iranian Prisons
Kylie Moore-Gilbert, academic previously jailed in Iran for over two years, has recounted her harrowing ordeal in the Islamic Republic’s prisons.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert, academic previously jailed in Iran for over two years, has recounted her harrowing ordeal in the Islamic Republic’s prisons.
Having spent time in two of the most notorious Iranian prisons -- Evin and Qarchak – she tells the readers how she was pushed to the limit of her endurance by extreme physical and psychological deprivation as she was held in a filthy solitary confinement cell for months, and subjected to relentless interrogation.
She narrated how she began adopting a strategy of resistance against her captors through multiple hunger strikes, letters smuggled to the media, and coordinated protests with other prisoners, as well as an escape attempt that led to her transfer to the isolated desert prison Qarchak.
She was arrested at Tehran Airport by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on September 12, 2018, was convicted of espionage in a closed-door trial, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Moore-Gilbert, who is a lecturer in Islamic Studies at Melbourne University, was released in November 2020 in a prisoner swap with three Iranian prisoners in Thailand, two of whom had been convicted in connection with a bombing plot in Bangkok in 2012.
Twitter users in Iran reported that some employees also gathered at the ministry's parking area and courtyard chanting slogans against Labor Minister Hojjat Abdolmaleki who had told the press in February that he had fired over 1,000 employees.
Pictures of the protest published by Iranian news outlets including Rouydad24 website, show the employees waiting for the minister to come forward and answer their questions. However, he did not leave his office at the ministry.
Employees also accused Abdolmaleki of launching a publicity to show off his "achievements" despite criticisms by staff and the media over his populist behavior. Some Twitter user published a publicity poster, adding that Abdolmaleki has used the ministry's funds to showcase his performance. Several members of the Iranian parliament have said that Abdolmaleki will be one of the first Raisi ministers to be impeached as soon as the parliament’s leadership allows impeachment motions to be tabled and go forward.
Reports from Tehran say Deputy Labor Minister Mohammad Reza Hosseini tried to calm the protestors, but his effort was not successful. The employees chanted "Payments with Justice" demanding fair pay.
One employee told Rouydad24: "It is ironic that the staff of other government and private companies come to the labor ministry to voice their grievances while its own employees have nowhere to go to seek relief for their grievances."
Another employee asked: "How can the labor minister manage the situation of unemployment in the country while he cannot sort out the problems in his own ministry?" He reminded that Abdolmaleki promised to quickly create millions of jobs in Iran at low cost, but it never materialized.
Other employees criticized the minister and his aides for putting on a show rather than working to solve staff problems. One employee told reporters that Abdolmaleki made no plans to tackle unemployment in Iran since he assumed office eight months ago. Earlier, Abdolmaleki had said in an odd comment that "Creating jobs was not among the responsibilities of the labor ministry."
Criticism of other economic ministers of the Raisi administration has also been on the rise during the past months. Lawmaker Behrouz Mohebbi on Tuesday harshly criticized Industry Minister Reza Fatemi Amin who is also on the parliament's impeachment list, charging that he has not met any one of the many promises he made before joining the government.
Mohebbi further charged that the managers of car manufacturing companies affiliated with the Ministry of Industry drive foreign cars and do not care about the rising price and falling quality of Iranian-made cars. "If they used Iranian cars, they would have made efforts to improve the quality of domestic products at least for their families' safety," he said.
Mohebbi also criticized the minister for failing to control the car market. According to the media last week, the price of a basic old model compact car called Pride, rose by 400 million rials ($1,600) overnight and reached 2 trillion rials.
Mohebbi said, "when Fatemi Amin's credentials were being reviewed at the parliament, he promised to put an end to the monopoly of the two car makers affiliated with the ministry, to boost production and to improve quality. Some eight months on, none of these promises have materialized." He reminded Fatemi Amin that even Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has acknowledged that people are unhappy about his ministry's performance.
