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The Uncaged Sky: My 804 Days in an Iranian Prison

by Kylie Moore-Gilbert

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The extraordinary true story of Kylie Moore-Gilbert's fight to survive 804 days imprisoned in Iran. On September 12, 2018 British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert was arrested at Tehran Airport by Iran's feared Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Convicted of espionage in a shadowy trial presided over by Iran's most notorious judge, Dr Moore-Gilbert was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Incarcerated in Tehran's Evin and Qarchak prisons for 804 days, this is the full and gripping account of her harrowing ordeal. Held in a filthy solitary confinement cell for months, and subjected to relentless interrogation, Kylie was pushed to the limits of her endurance by extreme physical and psychological deprivation. Kylie's only lifeline was the covert friendships she made with other prisoners inside the Revolutionary Guards' maximum-security compound where she had been 'disappeared', communicating in great danger through the air vents between cells, and by hiding secret letters in hava khori, the narrow outdoor balcony where she was led, blindfolded, for a solitary hour each day. Cut off from the outside world, Kylie realised she alone had the power to change the dynamics of her incarceration. To survive, she began to fight back, adopting a strategy of resistance with her captors. Multiple hunger strikes, letters smuggled to the media, co-ordinated protests with other prisoners and a daring escape attempt led to her transfer to the isolated desert prison, Qarchak, to live among convicted criminals. On November 25, 2020, after more than two years of struggle, Kylie was finally released in a high stakes three-nation prisoner swap deal orchestrated by the Australian government, laying bare the complex game of global politics in which she had become a valuable pawn. Written with extraordinary insight and vivid immediacy, The Uncaged Sky is Kylie Moore-Gilbert's remarkable story of courage and resilience, and a powerful meditation on hope, solidarity and what it means to be free.… (more)
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My interest started as curiosity about how Moore-Gilbert managed to stay sane through it all. Decades ago I read Brian Keenan's An Evil Cradling, (1991), his account of his four years as a hostage in Beirut, and what has stayed with me after all these years is the horror of the situation these men found themselves in; how Keenan's friendship with fellow hostage John McCarthy sustained him; and the remarkable lack of bitterness afterwards. I still remember how I found myself wondering about whether I had the inner resources to cope in such a situation, deprived of everything that I hold dear.

Moore-Gilbert's answer to this is that survival depends on taking control of what can be controlled. Her initial shock, disbelief and horror at being detained in solitary confinement for espionage in Evin Prison gave way to fighting back when she realised that the relentless interrogations and false hopes of release were never going to end. Her cooperation was having no effect. Instead of trying to conceal her emotions, she detached from her 'old self' and expressed her anger and frustrations; she challenged her interrogators over their lies; and she went on hunger strikes to get improvements in her atrocious living conditions and to be allowed access to consular assistance. In a patriarchal society and one where the Revolutionary Guard holds immense power and status, she refused to respect the men who were using her as a pawn in 'hostage diplomacy'.

Moore-Gilbert's case challenges the official Australian government policy of 'quiet diplomacy' in situations like this. She argues that the media coverage and campaign to free her was effective, but since there is silence about what our diplomats did behind the scenes, it's hard to know what works best in an invidious situation. After all, there is probably no 'best way' to deal with regimes that have no respect for human rights and sanction the abuse of power by men who are fundamentally unreasonable. Each case is unique.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/04/13/the-uncaged-sky-my-804-days-in-an-iranian-pr... ( )
  anzlitlovers | Apr 12, 2022 |
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The extraordinary true story of Kylie Moore-Gilbert's fight to survive 804 days imprisoned in Iran. On September 12, 2018 British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert was arrested at Tehran Airport by Iran's feared Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Convicted of espionage in a shadowy trial presided over by Iran's most notorious judge, Dr Moore-Gilbert was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Incarcerated in Tehran's Evin and Qarchak prisons for 804 days, this is the full and gripping account of her harrowing ordeal. Held in a filthy solitary confinement cell for months, and subjected to relentless interrogation, Kylie was pushed to the limits of her endurance by extreme physical and psychological deprivation. Kylie's only lifeline was the covert friendships she made with other prisoners inside the Revolutionary Guards' maximum-security compound where she had been 'disappeared', communicating in great danger through the air vents between cells, and by hiding secret letters in hava khori, the narrow outdoor balcony where she was led, blindfolded, for a solitary hour each day. Cut off from the outside world, Kylie realised she alone had the power to change the dynamics of her incarceration. To survive, she began to fight back, adopting a strategy of resistance with her captors. Multiple hunger strikes, letters smuggled to the media, co-ordinated protests with other prisoners and a daring escape attempt led to her transfer to the isolated desert prison, Qarchak, to live among convicted criminals. On November 25, 2020, after more than two years of struggle, Kylie was finally released in a high stakes three-nation prisoner swap deal orchestrated by the Australian government, laying bare the complex game of global politics in which she had become a valuable pawn. Written with extraordinary insight and vivid immediacy, The Uncaged Sky is Kylie Moore-Gilbert's remarkable story of courage and resilience, and a powerful meditation on hope, solidarity and what it means to be free.

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