Couple held in Iran

@Vinvertebrate I would guess they see themselves as Afghans or honourary ones. They obviously love the country hugely and have tried to help it's women at massive personal risk. By the sound of things they are well aware of their potential fate and resigned to it. Brave souls.

I read that the couple told relatives that they would rather die than be "bartered" between governments if arrested. I'm just not sure that you get to opt out of diplomatic protection like that! It's clear that they were adored by their employees and wholly devoted to the country. They even got married in Kabul. :(

I appreciate that the couple in Afghanistan have been there a long time doing what they do but it’s pretty stupid carrying on doing it with the Taliban in charge of, it really was just a matter of time before they got arrested . I’m not sure this country can keep affording to buy back individuals who decide , knowingly to put themselves in this position .

Just caught up on this. It sounds as though this couple were exceptionally honourable, but I do fear the worst outcome here. The Taliban’s MO is basically the same as Iran’s - imprisonment as the start of (effectively) hostage negotiations with foreign governments.

No, me neither. They sound like very admirable people and I assume they were aware and resigned to the fact that this would one day happen.

After 18 years living in Afghanistan I'm pretty sure the last thing they were is naive. I think they were trying desperately not to abandon the people they had been helping for so long as the work they did was desperately needed. Braver than I would be.

Gosh that is worrying, I wouldn't have stayed though if I were them I have to say

Another naive pair here, but the circumstances are very different. This could have a very sad outcome.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0rznw4j2e4o

Maybe depends how long ago it was and how you traveled etc. people can have different experiences. And rules change.
many foreign backpackers travelled happily through Iran in the 1970ies.

I have been to Syria twice (before the war) and this was not my experience at all. Unless it were the most covert and sophisticated world class surveillance

I have been to Syria before the war and tourists were tracked on everything (bus trips/Hotels/random checks etc). Every bus trip we took between cities our passport details were written down in several places. The number of tourists 20 years ago was very very small. Literally a hand full at every sight we visited. And often the only foreigners on a bus.

I can imagine it’s very similar in Iran and probably much easier to track people now. And so much easier to track those that post on social media.

Would they have been being tracked from when they entered the country?

The authorities will know where you are without an informant giving them that information. Not only will your details be registered with the hotels in which you stay but there are security/ID checks when you cross state boundaries. I don’t doubt for one moment that the Iranian security services would have been able to find us easily if they’d wanted to!

Thank you for the links. The article mentions that the family have tried to contact the guide they used with no luck and then kind of infer that as he was the only one with them throughout Iran that he may have been an informant.
Surely the guide would not contact the family now anyway - it would be putting himself in incredible danger to do so!

Try this: https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14421933/Arrogance-Iran-motorbike-couple-danger-tourism-Brits-PAUL-BRACCHI-inside-story.html

I'm always a bit skeptical of these hit pieces. I suspect that the Mail could find someone to say something a bit snide/jealous about most of us, and I think a lot of us can sometimes come across as a bit bloody-minded. If they were being held hostage after, say, their plane had had to make an emergency landing (as happened in Baghdad at the start of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait), the piece would presumably have had a different tone, even though it was about the same people.

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14421933/Arrogance-Iran-motorbike-couple-danger-tourism-Brits-PAUL-BRACCHI-inside-story.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14421933/Arrogance-Iran-motorbike-couple-danger-tourism-Brits-PAUL-BRACCHI-inside-story.html

Sorry, don't know why it wouldn't attach to first message but has gone up twice on this one. 🤦.

Interesting article, it's behind a paywall so link is to paywall remover site.

This quote rather leap out: But I can see a situation in which Lindsay might have upset someone. She is good company in a bar but when you get to know her you realise that she feels she can do what she wants, when she wants.'
It seems the couple, or rather Mrs Foreman, had a number of fallouts with people in Albunuelas.

It's Wikipedia. Anyone can edit it.

They forgot to add 'foolish' before couple. They forgot to add that they travelled to Iran despite considerable advice not to ho. They forgot to say that they were taking pictures whilst travelling around interviewing Iranians and uploaded to social media using a VPN.

Someone has created a Wikipedia page for this story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_of_Craig_and_Lindsay_Foreman

Ironic heh at the mayor of Brussels giving them a “diplomatic contact” in Iran!

@PrimalScreaming presenting posters at conferences can still be quite a big deal. The idea is that you lurk around it and chat to conference participants. So it's an opportunity to present your material in a different but less formal way to a full presentation. Both DH and DD have done this, as well as giving full presentations and have travelled to do both.

I have also read that when Lindsay applied to give her findings to the psychology conference they were travelling around the world to, the conference gave her the opportunity to present just a poster as her contribution.

That seems to be confirmed by the list of accepted presentation proposals here:
https://ippaworldcongress.org/abstract-presenter-listing/ (page 4).

Poster sessions are regarded as less prestigious than giving a talk, but in my experience of academic conferences they can be the best way to make contact with the small number of people who are really interested in your topic. The Q&A sessions after a talk are often pretty bad; there is a standard joke about a mediocre (usually male) audience member droning on for 6 of the allotted 10 minutes with "This is more of a comment than a question" that gets nobody anywhere. Any discussion where the participants are sitting 15 metres apart and talking through microphones in front of a room full of others is never going to match the quality of being able to point at this point in that diagram.

This article has some quite interesting background (from late last year):

https://www.surinenglish.com/lifestyle/people/finding-out-what-means-human-motorbike-20241220182014-nt.html

I have also read that when Lindsay applied to give her findings to the psychology conference they were travelling around the world to, the conference gave her the opportunity to present just a poster as her contribution.
So there wasn't to be an oral presentation at the conference - just allowed the inclusion of a poster to represent their whole trip... which seems a little bit of a bizarre move from both sides! That's some trip to undertake for a poster! Equally the conference didn't seem to find it interesting enough to allow for a presentation.

Couple of morons. They've caused a lot of unnecessary grief.