An Australian academic detained on false espionage charges in one of Iran’s most hellish prisons has revealed she’s just months away from welcoming her second child.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert was held in Evin and Qarchak prisons in Tehran from September 2018 after she was arrested by the intelligence arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard when she tried to fly out of the country after attending a conference.
Once she was finally freed and allowed to return home to Australia in November 2020, Dr Moore-Gilbert discovered her then-husband, Ruslan Hodorov, had started a new relationship with her University of Melbourne colleague and PhD supervisor, Kylie Baxter.
She divorced Mr Hodorov soon after.
Dr Moore-Gilbert then met her new partner, broadcaster and comedian Sami Shah, on a dating app before the pair had a daughter in 2023. Now they are expecting a baby boy in October.
‘I knew I wanted to have kids when I was in prison,’ she told the High Steaks podcast.
‘You think at length about all kinds of life choices and what matters in your life.
‘It was a source of great angst to me that I had this 10-year prison sentence and I could potentially be 41-years-old by the time I was released from prison and maybe I’d never have that opportunity to have a family.’
Dr Moore-Gilbert (pictured) said she was kept in a freezing, tiny room and was subject to psychological torture in Iran
Dr Moore-Gilbert split her time in Iran between Tehran’s Evin Prison (pictured) and Qarchak Prison
Dr Moore-Gilbert, the cousin of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, was arrested after two people she attended a conference alongside flagged her as ‘suspicious’.
An Iranian Revolutionary Court judge sentenced her to 10 years’ incarceration in a secret trial where no evidence against Dr Moore-Gilbert was presented.
Dr Moore-Gilbert believes she was a victim of hostage diplomacy.
Five years after her release, Dr Moore-Gilbert said she felt gratitude she had met Mr Shah, who has a 16-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.
‘I never expected at the time to find someone so quickly,’ she says.
‘I’m really, really fortunate and, you know, maybe the universe owed me a round of good luck.’
Though she expressed trepidation at being a ‘boy mum’ in today’s society, highlighting the need for boys to have male role models, particularly in online spaces where misogynistic views are prolific.
‘It really concerns me,’ she said.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert (pictured with partner Sami Shah and their two daughters) was held in an Iranian jail for 804 days
‘I think it’s lucky that my partner, Sammy, is quite a feminist dad, and he’s very open-minded, and having gender equality is important to him.
‘That ethos coming through from the family and those values coming through from the family is really important.’
Dr Moore-Gilbert who survived being kept in a freezing, tiny cell and subject to psychological torture, said the task of parenting two kids under the age of three was still daunting.
