Who Is Fariba Adelkhah? Iranian-French Researcher Released From Iran Prison

Iranian-French academic Fariba Adelkhah was released from Iran’s Evin prison, but the conditions of her release were unclear, according to reports. Adelkhah has been in prison since Iranian authorities arrested her in 2019. She was one of the seven French nationals who were detained in Iran. This was one of the factors that worsened the relationship between Paris and Tehran in the past month.

"It is essential that all of Fariba Adelkhah’s freedoms are restored, including her right to return to France if she wishes," said the French Foreign Ministry in a statement on Friday.

In 2020, the Iranian authorities sentenced Adelkhah to five years in prison on national security charges. Later, they moved her to house arrest, but in January she was asked to return to prison.

Who Is Fariba Adelkhah?

• Adelkhah has denied the charges against her. France has called them "politically motivated" and repeatedly demanded Adelkhah’s release. Adelkhah is an anthropologist and researcher at the Paris Political Institute of Sciences Po.
• Iran’s elite revolutionary guards have arrested numerous dual nationals and foreigners in the past few years, mostly on charges related to security and espionage.
• The rights group has accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests. Iran, which does not recognise dual citizenship, denies arresting people to gain diplomatic leverage.
• "France reiterates its demand that all French nationals who are arbitrarily detained in Iran be released immediately without condition," said the foreign ministry.
• Iran had sentenced Fariba Adelkhah to a five-year prison sentence on charges of breaching national security and spreading propaganda against the country in June 2020. Initially, she was charged with spying as well, but this was dropped.
• Adelkhah was born in 1959 in Iran and moved to France at the age of 18 to pursue education, first at Strasbourg University and then at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes En Sciences Sociales in Paris, where she obtained a doctorate in anthropology.
• She is a specialist in the political anthropology of post-revolutionary Iran and has contributed to numerous scientific reviews, including Iranian studies. She has also authored a number of books, including Revolution under the Veil: Islamic Women of Iran.
• She is described as a free-thinking, independent, extremely talented, and outspoken researcher by Jean-François Bayart, former director at the Centre for Education Research and Innovation (CERI).

Suggested Reading: A Feminist Revolution Like No Other: Iranian Women’s Fight Against Historical Oppression