Couple held in Iran

They have been given 10 years in prison for espionage. They have basically made themselves political hostages. How much are tax payers forking out for the idiots and how much lore will we have to pay?

Well there will always be vested interests spinning a line, the trick is not to be credulous or gullible. I imagine the current regime is a Paradise if you’re a religious fundamentalist who hates democracy, the rule of law and women, for example.

I don’t agree that assessing risk is difficult - it’s not even remotely nuanced. The regime is run by murderous thugs who have recently executed tens of thousands of protesters in cold blood. Iran is on the do not travel list of just about every liberal democracy for a reason. I’d trust those experts over randoms on SM.

Don’t get me wrong - I have family there and would love to visit. My SIL is a doctor in Tehran who was detained in prison for unIslamic dress last year. I’d love to hear her take on whether the negativity is “western propaganda” or not.

I do think you're right in that there can be conflicting narratives. One hears some Iranians saying everything negative is western propaganda and life is good and peaceful, and there's no doubt the geography of the country is absolutely beautiful and when you see some travellers saying how lovely their time was and how it's not as the media says it is, it doubtless can make assessing risks more difficult.

I doubt this couple would have travelled to somewhere like Sudan for e.g.

@GreenApplesRedApplesYellowApples even if the US teenagers you mention successfully find a tour guide and obtain an entry visa - which is not a foregone conclusion and takes months - they will be going against US government ‘do not travel’ advice and will be left in no doubt that they will be without consular assistance if the shit hits the fan. If there really are people stupid enough to risk that for clicks on SM, then God help us all.

Please don’t normalise this moronic behaviour. It trivialises the risks taken by thousands of dual national Iranians, who knowingly accept that risk in the interests of seeing their families. But then again, as we’ve seen from the horrific events of recent weeks, neither the Labour government nor the media has the tiniest of fucks to give about the plight of the Iranian people at the hands of Islamofascists, so perhaps it’s no surprise when the hard of thinking like this couple set off there on a bike for the shits and giggles.

Yes. I do want them to come home safely of course. But I worked for 10 years in a number of tricky countries for an international aid organisation in my late 20s to late 30s. We were so used to seeing Western do-gooders naively wandering around thinking they were on a great adventure and flattering themselves they were 'travellers not tourists'. What was consistent was that sort of vague happy view of 'I'm a good person so people will be good to me'. Most of the time it's fine of course but the number of times people ignored advice (particularly about where to travel and how to dress) ended up being in serious trouble and then having to be bailed out by the local diplomats was astonishing. And annoying and distracting and often expensive.

Imagine being an Iranian teenager imprisoned and sentenced to hang slowly from a crane, all for the crime of protesting your government, and in the next cell there's somebody who went on a jolly through your country to prove all the naysayers wrong.

I mean, I do feel sorry for their nightmarish situation but people who squander the luck of being born in a free country are very frustrating.

I disagree. Would you walk across a motorway...many people do, it doesn't make it a sensible thing to do. With all the press about others being arrested there and in Afghanistan why do it...just arrogant

Oh I see, yes you do have a point there!

Because they won't be free without a lot of time and money being spent on their release from this end... consular, governmental & logistical, not to mention charitable. They are bargaining chips to Iran and they will no doubt cost the British taxpayer through their naivety (at best) arrogance (at worst)

For them then to use it as a personally profitable experience would be wrong in my view.

I feel for their family, but they are a pair of idiots and I hope not too much diplomatic time is wasted on saving them from their own folly.

I would definitely use it if freed. Why not?

Years of their lives both separately and as a married couple are going down the drain.

Make the most of an otherwise awful situation. I admire her ability to do anything positive. If it were me I'd be an absolute mess.

A fair number of people travel and have been travelling to Iran, including Americans. There are lots of videos on YT about people's trips.

It's sort of been a thing that if you take all the right precautions and travel with a guide - this is a very strict requirement - then it's relatively safe.

So I can see a hippy free living type of couple deciding it will be fine provided we do xyz. But I don't know if the specific route they were traveling and taking pics etc were risky.

But it's a bit unfair to put it all on them. The Iranian government well knows they're not spies. It's all a game

I think they were shockingly naive fools.

But i hope so much they are home soon.

I do wonder about this. Their motorbike tour was 'research' asking people in the countries they travelled through, ' What makes a good life?' with a view to displaying their findings at a conference in Australia.

Lindsey Foreman worked in 'wellbeing' and essentially life coaching as far as I can see. She did a doctorate to that effect. In this interview she talks about setting up a wall in the prison full of positive quotes to help motivate the women with her. It sounds as well as trying to keep herself positive she wants to use her techniques as far as possible in Evin as well and I can't help feeling she will want to 'use' this experience once released.

It is exceptionally foolish and perhaps that’s the reason there seems to be less diplomatic pressure relative to Nazanin Ratcliffe. She was a dual national, visiting family - whereas this couple had no legitimate reason to go. At best, they were naive and reckless, and the entire situation was avoidable.

I agree, they are a pair of fools. If they are freed they should be embarrassed by their idiocy and stay well out of the limelight. I have very little sympathy for them.

I think they are idiots, but want to see them released ASAP. I feel very sorry for their adult children- they didn't ask for any of this.

If and when they do get out, I will be annoyed if I see them all over TV shows and using this to promote themselves.

They need to be dignified after all this trouble their actions have caused.

Sorry but I don't. Who in their right mind goes on a motorbike trip through Iran? A country with a long history of detaining westerners, a state sponsored hated of the UK and a government who do not hesitate to imprison people. It's bloody arrogant and stupid and they are reaping the rewards for their actions.

When they were first arrested, the family decided not to make a fuss "in case that made the Iranians angry", but after a while they realised that the Iranians didn't care very much about what anyone is saying, and as a result the only people being let off the hook were the Foreign Office. So they went into full publicity mode.

Similarly, I think Lindsay and Craig have probably decided that the IRGC has a plan for their future, and while that plan may depend on what the UK government does, it doesn't depend very much on what they personally do. When you've being charged with spying for Israel, adding on "And daring to mention that people are being arrested for protesting against us" probably doesn't seem like something to worry about too much.

I mean they're probably desperate and they're sort of in a 'damned if you do and damned if don't' scenario.

I really feel for them. Spuriously separating a married couple is cruel. But that said, I'm surprised they're allowed to see each other at all.

Lindsay said she is able to see her husband Craig, who is also detained in Evin prison, but described the meetings as "psychological torture".
"So for example, we were promised three meetings a month, which can range between, I think the [shortest] has been about 45 minutes ... and the longest I think we've had is about, you know, just over two hours."
"On more than one occasion, they cancel it at the last minute. And that is the most soul-destroying thing."

I've still been loosely following this and yesterday saw that ITV had an 'exclusive' telephone interview from Evin prison with Lindsey Foreman.

I understand that they and the family probably want any publicity they can get in the UK so they aren't forgotten. But surely this was a bad idea!? Doesn't this just play into the Iranian regime's hands as they are on 'spying' charges? In the interview she talks about political prisoners being held with her after the latest demonstrations in Tehran and some sentenced to death. It seems very naive, if not down right foolhardy to talk about this from Iranian prison to western news outlets!

www.itv.com/news/2026-02-12/british-mum-lindsay-foreman-speaks-out-from-irans-notorious-evin-prison

I can't imagine months of this. Poor things.

For anyone still following this - according to son's Instagram account, both Lindsay & Craig Foreman are now being held in Evin prison in Tehran. They are being held separately.
They are both also now on hunger strike according to Lindsay's son and also this BBC news article:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpv1w2nkggdo

I appreciate your perspective!

This is why the UK government has had a stance of not paying ransom for UK citizen captives abroad. Once you do it a few times, it becomes a successful means of extorting more and more funds and ultimately places citizens at increased risk.

Thanks for the in-depth information.

The actual amount is disputed. As I understand it, the shah ordered and paid in advance for 1500 tanks (plus some other military stuff) from a shady MoD-related arms company called IMS. We dutifully started manufacturing the tanks, then the Islamic revolution happened and we decided not to hand over a load of military hardware to the hardline nutters who wanted to eliminate the West, Israel, etc. 🤷‍♀️

Iran has been pissed off ever since. There was a court case in the early 90’s and it resulted in about £300 million being paid into court by the UK to meet its liability. Iran couldn’t actually get its hands on that money, so remained pissed off.

Nazanin’s “ransom” of £400m was probably considered an end to the matter from the UK gov’s perspective, but apparently not for Iran. If you can extract money from a country by holding citizens to ransom and you are a bunch of terrorist nut jobs anyway, why wouldn’t you?

fwiw DH is dual nationality UK and Iranian and he won’t set foot in Iran these days. Way too dangerous in his view (although people still do it ofc).