British-Iranian academic detained in Tehran

British-Iranian anthropologist Kameel Ahmady was arrested in Tehran at the weekend and taken to the notorious Evin prison, his wife said yesterday.

Evin prison is known for housing political prisoners and academics, artists, journalists and activists. British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been held in the women’s wing of Evin prison for much of the time since her arrest in 2016.

Shafagh Rahmani said that Mr Ahmady, the latest dual citizen to be detained in Iran, has not been charged with a crime. Prosecutors have not disclosed the accusations he faces, she said.

“My husband was granted British citizenship 25 years ago but has been living in Iran for the past 15 years,” Ms Rahmani told Radio Farda.

The arrest of her husband comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the UK.

Mr Ahmady’s website shows he has researched several sensitive issues in Iran, including the first comprehensive study of female genital mutilation in the country and “temporary marriages”. He has also looked into the identity of different ethnic groups in Iran and the lives of children scavenging for waste in Tehran.

Mr Ahmady has worked and travelled in Africa, the Far East, Bosnia, Turkey, Afghanistan and Iraq where he “became interested in the everyday lives of these local populations, their traditions and customs, particularly the harmful ones, and also the effect conflict, war and poverty has had on these populations”.

He studied at the London School of Economics and in the Netherlands and says he has published books and papers on gender, minorities, early child marriage and honour killings.

The UK Foreign Office said it was aware of the reports of Mr Ahmady’s detention.

Its official travel advice warns

British-Iranian citizens against all travel to Iran and says diplomats’ ability to provide consular support to those detained is “extremely limited”.

“There is a risk that British nationals, and a higher risk that British-Iranian dual nationals, could be arbitrarily detained in Iran. All British nationals should consider carefully the risks of travelling to Iran,” the official guidance says.

“The Iranian authorities don’t recognise dual nationality for Iranian citizens and therefore don’t grant consular access for FCO officials to visit them in detention.”

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was convicted of espionage in 2016, charges she denies.

Abbas Edalat, a British-Iranian academic at Imperial College London, was released in December after being held for eight months in Tehran on unspecified charges.

London-Tehran relations are particularly tense after the Iranian seizure of a British-flagged vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, which came two weeks after UK forces detained an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar that appeared to be heading to Syria in breach of sanctions.

On Tuesday, an official in Gibraltar rejected reports in Iran that the Iranian ship was about to be released.