Australian fertility expert arrested in Iran for working with ‘espionage networks’

Iran has arrested an Australian fertility expert, accusing her of working with foreign “espionage networks” to downplay the country’s population crisis.

Dr Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi was detained as she was leaving Iran, the state news agency Irna said.

The University of Melbourne says Dr Hosseini-Chavoshi is working at its school of population and global health and has published widely on Iran’s once-lauded fertility and family planning policies.

A university spokesman told Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald that reports of her detention were “deeply concerning”.

On Saturday, hardline newspaper Kayhan reported the arrest of several population “activists who, under the cover of scientific activities, had infiltrated state bodies”.

“One person has been arrested in this regard and three or four people are being sought,” judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Ejei told news website Mizan. Mr Ejei gave no further details.

A lawyer told Irna that the woman was Dr Hosseini-Chavoshi and she did not yet have a lawyer.

Iran was once considered an international success story in population control, bringing birth rates down from seven per woman in the 1980s to 1.66 in 2016, according to World Bank figures.

Then health minister Alireza Marandi received the UN Population Award in 2000 for his family planning initiatives.

Dr Hosseini-Chavoshi has written extensively about this work, which she called the “fastest fall in fertility ever recorded”.

In 2012, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said it was a mistake to have continued the family planning policies of the 1990s, and called for new measures to double the population to 150 million.

Dr Hosseini-Chavoshi has dual Australian and Iranian nationality and was detained by security forces in a drive against “enemy infiltration elements”.

“There is evidence these individuals are connected to western espionage networks,” Nasrollah Pejmanfar, a member of parliament’s cultural commission. Iran does not recognise dual nationality.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was offering assistance to the family of an national “who has been detained in Iran”.

Tehran has been accused of detaining foreign nationals to extract concessions from their countries.