Iran releases British-Iranian academic on bail

TEHRAN: A British-Iranian anthropologist held in Iran for three months has been released on bail, his wife told state news agency IRNA on Wednesday.

“Kameel Ahmady was released on Sunday evening on a 500 million (toman, $42,000) bail after three months of temporary detention,” IRNA quoted Shafagh Rahmani as saying. Iran confirmed Ahmady’s arrest in October, less than three months after the detention of Franco-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah was publicised.

French anthropologist Christian Bromberger wrote in August that Ahmady was “recently arrested”, in an article published on the French edition of The Conversation website. Author of a book in English titled “In the Name of Tradition: Female Genital Mutilation in Iran”, Ahmady holds dual British and Iranian citizenship, according to Bromberger, himself an Iran specialist.