Why two British-Australian women are being held in Iran
Duo believed to be in same jail as British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Two British-Australian women are among three people reported to have been arrested and detained in Iran.
One of the women, an academic, is believed to have been arrested several months ago and has since been sentenced to ten years in prison and put in solitary confinement, says The Guardian.
The other woman, a blogger, was “reportedly told by Iranian authorities she was being held to facilitate a prisoner swap with Australia”, after being arrested along with her Australian boyfriend about ten weeks ago, the newspaper adds.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The accusations levelled against the trio are unclear, although BBC Persian reports that the blogger and her partner were detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps for camping in a military precinct around Jajrood in Tehran province.
Little information is available relating to the charges against the academic, who studied at the University of Cambridge and was lecturing at an Australian university. However, the BBC notes that “ten-year terms are routinely given in Iran for spying charges”.
All three detainees are believed to be in Tehran’s Evin Prison, where British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been held on spying charges since 2016.
The Times, which broke the news of the latest arrests, says the detainments are “likely to raise questions about the travel advice issued by the Foreign Office (FCO)”. The UK government department has warned of the risk of arbitrary detention for all British citizens, but has only advised an all-out ban on travel to the country for British-Iranian dual citizens.
The FCO website currently says: “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 department has declined to comment on the arrest claims.
However, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has confirmed that it is “providing consular assistance to the families of three Australians detained in Iran”, adding that “due to our privacy obligations, we will not comment further”.
The news of the detainments comes as tensions continue to mount between Iran and a US-UK-Australia coalition over a series of tit-for-tat tanker seizures in Gibraltar and the Strait of Hormuz.
The US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran says that at least 12 dual and foreign nationals or Iranian citizens with foreign permanent residences were known to be imprisoned in Iran as of July 2019.
According to The Guardian, the rights organisation has noted “a pattern to the arrest of foreign nationals, involving prolonged solitary confinement and interrogations, a lack of due legal process and access to counsel, and a denial of consular access or visits by the UN or humanitarian organisations”.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Interest rate cut: the winners and losers
The Explainer The Bank of England's rate cut is not good news for everyone
-
Quiz of The Week: 3 – 9 May
Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
The Week Unwrapped: Will robots benefit from a sense of touch?
Podcast Plus, has Donald Trump given centrism a new lease of life? And was it wrong to release the deadly film Rust?
-
What happens if tensions between India and Pakistan boil over?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION As the two nuclear-armed neighbors rattle their sabers in the wake of a terrorist attack on the contested Kashmir region, experts worry that the worst might be yet to come
-
Why Russia removed the Taliban's terrorist designation
The Explainer Russia had designated the Taliban as a terrorist group over 20 years ago
-
Inside the Israel-Turkey geopolitical dance across Syria
THE EXPLAINER As Syria struggles in the wake of the Assad regime's collapse, its neighbors are carefully coordinating to avoid potential military confrontations
-
'Like a sound from hell': Serbia and sonic weapons
The Explainer Half a million people sign petition alleging Serbian police used an illegal 'sound cannon' to disrupt anti-government protests
-
The arrest of the Philippines' former president leaves the country's drug war in disarray
In the Spotlight Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the ICC earlier this month
-
Ukrainian election: who could replace Zelenskyy?
The Explainer Donald Trump's 'dictator' jibe raises pressure on Ukraine to the polls while the country is under martial law
-
Why Serbian protesters set off smoke bombs in parliament
THE EXPLAINER Ongoing anti-corruption protests erupted into full view this week as Serbian protesters threw the country's legislature into chaos
-
Who is the Hat Man? 'Shadow people' and sleep paralysis
In Depth 'Sleep demons' have plagued our dreams throughout the centuries, but the explanation could be medical