Iran jail inmate was star student

THE Melbourne academic locked up in an Iranian jail was dux of her NSW high school and won an award for visual arts.

New details have emerged about the life of Dr Kylie Moore-gilbert, who faces up to a decade in an Iranian jail over unknown charges, despite persistent efforts from Australian diplomats to secure her release.

Dr Moore-gilbert (pictured) appears to have graduated from All Saints’ College in Bathurst in 2005, scoring an almost perfect final mark.

An All Saints’ College newsletter, dated February 2006, details her achievements. Under the title Head Lines, Ms Jenny Williams congratulated Ms Moore-gilbert.

“Kylie Moore-gilbert was dux of ASC with a UAI of 99.40,” she wrote. “Kylie also had the distinction of coming first in the state in Visual Arts (out of 8548 candidates. She was also placed on the Premier’s all rounder’s list with a band 6 result (90 per cent or more) in 10 units (five courses).”

A NSW Government website confirmed her achievements in visual arts. All Saints’ is a coeducational school from kindergarten to Year 12 that “offers education in a caring, Christian environment”.

Dr Moore-gilbert said in a Youtube video for The Modern Middle East channel that she spent a “period of a few years backpacking around the world” which sparked her interest in Iran.

That explains part of the gap in her education before she attended the prestigious Cambridge University in the UK.

Her time at the University of Cambridge has also been revealed as a website shows her pictured in a desert and encouraging other students to learn about the Middle East.

She also contributed to her local newspaper in Bathurst, the Western Advocate, with a column about her meeting with Julian Assange in 2011.