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Couple held in Iran

660 replies

StrawDonkey · 15/02/2025 16:44

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c626p6pz7xlo

AIBU to not understand why anyone would go on a motorcycle trip to Iran? Advice is not to go there at all but I can understand that someone desperate to see family would take a risk.

OP posts:
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Waymarked7 · 15/02/2025 20:09

I went about 15 years ago to Iran and Pakistan and they are beautiful and amazing places, not safe then but much less safe now. As much as I would love to go back, I wouldn't go now. Getting a visa 15 years ago was tricky enough. Some tourists were murdered when we were in Pakistan close to us and we had threats to us in various places.

I hope they manage to make it home safely.

Alaimo · 15/02/2025 20:03

I don't think they were stupid for attempting a round the world / long distance trip. They were, however, monumentally stupid for going to Iran, at the present moment, as Brits. There are plenty of stories of people biking (motorbike or pushbike) successfully through Iran, and many absolutely loved it. However, the situation in Iran today is not the same as it was 10 years ago when the Foreign office said it was a safe destination to travel to.

Mila6464 · 15/02/2025 20:01

DollopOfFun · 15/02/2025 18:46

What a pair of entitled, patronising , arrogant tossers.

Yes, it's an extremely unsafe oppressive regime that brutalises women, but let's go anyway, smile at people and gurn for a few photos and it'll all be grand.

they will want a book deal when they get out and will be all over breakfast tv telling us about their ordeal

Wornouttoday · 15/02/2025 19:55

ChanelBoucle · 15/02/2025 19:13

I did the biggest eye roll earlier when listening to the radio. Especially her social media post ‘we know it’s dangerous but we can’t wait to meet all the amazing people here’ or whatever virtue signalling claptrap it was. Ffs.

Me too. The Foreign Office says that nobody from the UK should travel to Iran under any circumstances. What were they thinking?

itsgettingweird · 15/02/2025 19:52

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 15/02/2025 19:44

@itsgettingweird I remember that couple who went abroad so she could give birth in the ocean and how various odd things came out afterwards, like they'd left an order child behind for months. Then it all abruptly vanished. Thought Id Google to see if they came back and it appears they've been charged with people trafficking 😮.

https://www.caymancompass.com/2024/07/31/human-smuggling-questions-for-british-yachters-after-brac-landing/

Edited

Well that's a turn of events!!!!

Thanks for the link.

I was half expecting they'd been rescued in the quiet so they weren't called idiots all over the internet forever more.

Turns out idiots was the polite version of events 🤦‍♀️

Their poor child they left behind in the uk.

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 15/02/2025 19:44

@itsgettingweird I remember that couple who went abroad so she could give birth in the ocean and how various odd things came out afterwards, like they'd left an order child behind for months. Then it all abruptly vanished. Thought Id Google to see if they came back and it appears they've been charged with people trafficking 😮.

https://www.caymancompass.com/2024/07/31/human-smuggling-questions-for-british-yachters-after-brac-landing/

notprincehamlet · 15/02/2025 19:39

They obviously had a naively optimistic view of human nature.
They're in their fifties - half a century on this planet is ample opportunity to be disabused of that notion.

LadyGaGasPokerFace · 15/02/2025 19:39

Middle class boredom got the better of them 🙄

Mochudubh · 15/02/2025 19:38

Pair of twats.

Middle-aged, middle class, self-indulgent twats.

Only a tiny minority of people their age have the resources to just take off and go round the world to "find themselves" or spread love or whatever the fuck they though they were doing. Generous early retirement packages is my guess. Well they can spend what's left of their retirement money on lawyers to get them out.

They remind me of the American missionary guy who went off to bring Jesus to some uncontacted island tribe in the Indian Ocean despite many warnings that these people REALLY did not like outsiders. It did not end well.

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 15/02/2025 19:34

fashionqueen0123 · 15/02/2025 19:28

Did he end up in house arrest in the end or back in jail again? I lost track of what happened.

Ooh apparently he was released in 2023. Strange because I do not recall it being mentioned on the news at all.

528htz · 15/02/2025 19:31

It'll be character building for them.

fashionqueen0123 · 15/02/2025 19:28

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 15/02/2025 18:43

If there's any justice then Morad Tahbaz should be released well before this pair. He was meant to come home with Nazanin and Anoosheh Ashoori but Iran changed their minds.

Did he end up in house arrest in the end or back in jail again? I lost track of what happened.

IWouldBeATerribleMayor · 15/02/2025 19:27

To thr poster who says taxpayer funds are used for all sorts of things we'd rather not- Oh I agree. But when you are so monumentally stupid and expect the government to help (and no doubt will down the track be selling your story for the tabloids) then quite honestly. Just fuck right off.

Of course I hope they are in a position to be selling their stories rather than a nastier alternative, but at this point I can only muster up disgust at their deliberate stupidity.

Chuchoter · 15/02/2025 19:27

Remember the two American bicyclists killed in an attack in Tajikistan who were a couple from Washington, D.C., who quit their jobs to bike around the globe.

The couple, Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, both 29, had been on the road for just over a year.
On their blog, they described the kindness and generosity of strangers around the world as they biked through Africa, Europe and central Asia.
There were hard days, setbacks and acts of cruelty, too — strangers who tried to run them off the road, or push them off their bikes.

Austin - "Badness exists, sure, but even that's quite rare. By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind. No greater revelation has come from our journey than this."

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the brutal attack that ended their lives, as well as the lives of two other foreign bicyclists. A car swerved to hit a group of seven bicyclists; assailants then jumped from the car and stabbed the bikers with knives.

......

I feel sorry for their families.

NippyNinjaCrab · 15/02/2025 19:26

Absolute fools! She looks like a right walloper in those pictures! They've gone against advice, they were looking for attention, and how were they made "famous" by a place in the sun ffs. Just leave them be, it will add to their experience of the culture and good people. Their poor families.

Mademetoxic · 15/02/2025 19:20

IWouldBeATerribleMayor · 15/02/2025 19:15

I tbh resent a bit that tax payer funds are going to be used to try and get these plonkers out of this situation. Of course I hope they get home safely. But FFS.

And yes- I bet there is going to be a crowdfunder as well.

Dick. Heads.

Unfortunately the tax payers fund a huge amount of money for things I would rather not fund....

Ponderingwindow · 15/02/2025 19:18

People like this make me angry. I’m one of those people lucky enough to be born in a place free of serious violence and where I am mostly protected by the local laws. I don’t face persecution and I have economic opportunity.

I don’t risk my safety by going on holiday in places where my rights as a woman are inferior. I certainly don’t risk it by going on holiday in places where the government specifically warns me that my safety is in jeopardy. Going that far puts other people at risk because there may be pressure to rescue me from my own stupidity.

Bloom15 · 15/02/2025 19:18

IWouldBeATerribleMayor · 15/02/2025 19:15

I tbh resent a bit that tax payer funds are going to be used to try and get these plonkers out of this situation. Of course I hope they get home safely. But FFS.

And yes- I bet there is going to be a crowdfunder as well.

Dick. Heads.

Exactly - and people put at risk for 2 idiots. I despair at people like this - stupid idiots

murasaki · 15/02/2025 19:17

VivaDixie · 15/02/2025 19:12

Absolute Muppets - was my first thought

My colleague is Persian. She has said she hasn't been since she was 12 and has no desire or intention to ever return. Both she and her Persian father hate the regime

Mine too. They meet up with extended family in Turkey.

IWouldBeATerribleMayor · 15/02/2025 19:15

I tbh resent a bit that tax payer funds are going to be used to try and get these plonkers out of this situation. Of course I hope they get home safely. But FFS.

And yes- I bet there is going to be a crowdfunder as well.

Dick. Heads.

Fifiworks · 15/02/2025 19:14

It seems like a nuts decision to go. I do hope they are released though. Seems Iran target people to use as a bargaining chip.

There was an Irish man in a similar situation who was released. He was there for work though. They just did it for fun.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/0724/1396015-bernard-phelan-iran-prison-ireland/

ChanelBoucle · 15/02/2025 19:13

I did the biggest eye roll earlier when listening to the radio. Especially her social media post ‘we know it’s dangerous but we can’t wait to meet all the amazing people here’ or whatever virtue signalling claptrap it was. Ffs.

fashionqueen0123 · 15/02/2025 19:12

Butchyrestingface · 15/02/2025 19:08

NO-ONE, ABSOLUTELY NO-ONE: I wonder if they have travel insurance?

It wouldn’t cover Iran anyway as it’s against gov advice to go there.

VivaDixie · 15/02/2025 19:12

Absolute Muppets - was my first thought

My colleague is Persian. She has said she hasn't been since she was 12 and has no desire or intention to ever return. Both she and her Persian father hate the regime

MadameCholetsDirtySecret · 15/02/2025 19:11

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

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