LONDON: A British-Iranian academic has fled Iran on foot through the country鈥檚 mountains after he was convicted of collaboration with the UK government.

Kameel Ahmady, who went to Britain to study social sciences, was sentenced to nine years in prison in Iran in December. An appeal against his conviction was rejected in absentia.

While in the UK, Ahmady applied for British citizenship. He then returned to Iran to pursue his career in anthropology, focusing on the rights of young women and girls, especially over forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

In Iran he campaigned against both, including calling for the legal age of marriage for girls, currently 13, to be raised.

This brought him to the attention of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which arrested him in August 2019.

While on bail pending the appeal to his conviction, he decided to escape the country, crossing remote mountains via dangerous routes used by smugglers, through deep snow and fog. 

鈥淚鈥檓 Kurdish by ethnicity and I know some of the routes, but it was very dangerous. I had to try several times,鈥� he told The Guardian.

鈥淚 smuggled myself out of Iran out of despair. I felt I had no other choice or option to leave.鈥� Ahmady described his journey as 鈥渧ery long, very dark and very scary.鈥�

He believes he was targeted by the regime partly for his dual British citizenship, as an act of retaliation after the UK seized an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar that was suspected of breaking sanctions against Tehran. But, he added, there were other reasons why the regime targeted him.

鈥淏y the first week of the interrogation the ship was released, but I had no access to (the) media. I was in solitary confinement. So, the only source of information I had was the interrogators. And one day this guy just came and said, 鈥楾hank you very much; we got our ship back, and I think you made a difference here, but we still really have a long way to go with you鈥�,鈥� Ahmady said.

鈥淏eing a dual national, you鈥檙e always a potential case,鈥� he told the BBC in a separate interview. 鈥淢y chief interrogator said 鈥榶ou鈥檙e very delicious,鈥� because I was Kurdish, I was coming from a Sunni religious background as opposed to the majority Shiites in Iran, and I was a researcher who was digging up sensitive issues 鈥� and using it for awareness raising.鈥�

Ahmady spent three months in the notorious Evin prison, also used to incarcerate British dual nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Kylie Moore-Gilbert.

There, he said, he was subjected to punishing interrogation techniques, and was kept in a small room with just three blankets for a bed and limited access to the outside world.

鈥淭hey were trying very hard to portray me as someone sent off to Iran by the British, recruited by foreign powers to try to influence certain people in the government,鈥� he said.

鈥淒on鈥檛 underestimate the concept and the seriousness of so-called 鈥榳hite torture鈥� 鈥� the psychological pressure they put on you. And all these games are played stage by stage, and they鈥檙e very well trained as to how to put a little bit of extra pressure on you when it鈥檚 needed.鈥�

Ahmady was convicted after his prosecutors claimed a charity he once worked for had received US funding.

The judge at his trial said: 鈥淕enerally, it can be said that increasing the age of marriage for children is one of the strategies of the enemy for weakening and ruining the family system; Mr. Kameel Ahmady is one of the leaders in the implementation of this strategy in Iran.鈥�

Ahmady said: 鈥淚 decided to escape because I couldn鈥檛 see myself staying in prison for 10 years, and watching my son from a distance growing up. By the time I would鈥檝e been released 鈥� if I was released 鈥� my son would鈥檝e been 15.鈥�

He added: 鈥淚 just simply left. I packed my bag with a shaving kit, a few books of mine and a laptop. I had to leave behind everything I loved, I worked for, all my human connections. They pushed me out, and that was just so sad.鈥�

The regime 鈥渋s run by a small minority, the so-called hardliners, but that generation of leaders is dying out,鈥� Ahmady said.

鈥淢ost people, those not making a living from high politics, corruption 鈥� want to see change.鈥�