Couple held in Iran

‘they're pathetic morons’

However irresponsible they been (and they really have), I hope that their poor families don’t stumble across threads like this.

Spies would surely more discreet than this pair. They do (spies) work in intelligence, after all.
No self respecting spy is likely to use social media to announce their intention to interview Iranians on how they rate their lives and level of happiness.

And on another note its actually really sad because a lot of ancient Iranian culture is really interesting/beautiful. I would love to go if it was a safe place to travel to.

I really hate it when people say “well you shouldn’t have..” when something goes wrong. And at the end of the day, people should be able to go anywhere and be safe; it’s really sad that’s not the case.

But even I said “what the fuck were they thinking” as soon as I saw this on the news

As someone else said Darwin Award winners. Well done, slow hand clap 👏

Indeed western couple validating Mullah and other Iranian people. I'm sure there are many lovely people in Iran living under a dreadful regime.

Yes, they were incredibly patronising and belittling toward the Iranian people they 'connected' with. They were just displaying their White Saviour complex. No doubt the mullah was far more cultured and educated than either of those fools.

They knew the risks and chose to ignore them, I have little sympathy I'm afraid. But what is more annoying is that we are now wasting a load of UK consulate resources trying to sort their mess out.

It does feel a bit 'we are westerners and we are here to dictate how you should be living because we have the answers'

These people really are prime candidates for the Darwin Awards.

I feel very sorry for every innocent person incarcerated in the jails of despotic non-democracies. Horrendous.

And they may be there for years.

Iran is so politically charged now, not just the internal regime of their Islamic republic, but a glance over the World News pages over the last year shows what a tinderbox the whole region is. And therefore how knife edge the relationship with the West.

Their trip seems to have made them easy to identify and grab. They are hostages. Collateral. A ‘just in case’ card held by Iran.

As such I am frustrated that people, at this time, not only put themselves at risk but actually added to the risk of UK security - albeit in a small way. But they are hostages and will likely be used as such.

Against the UK, a country they left in 2019 for ‘a better quality of life’.

On a separate note, I find the whole premise distasteful. That they ‘discover’ that oh, how surprising, people in these other countries are actually lovely! The educated, cultured Iranians have a long long history of literature, poetry and art that enables them to illuminate themselves, thank you very much. They don’t need a Western traveller to validate them. It’s all a bit Colonial and Noble Savage. And patronising.

Why shouldn’t a Mullah be a kind and well mannered hospitable person? Especially in a hospitable culture? Unless you have the view that all Muslims are evil? Imagine an ‘oh wow, how polite was a Cotswolds vicar, AMAZING!’ post by an American tourist…

None of that makes it ok for them or any person to be captured and held hostage / ill treated. They must be terrified. Alongside every innocent person held by regimes where human rights are not recognised.

Sadly, horribly for them, because their currency is high as bargaining chips, I don’t feel optimistic about diplomatic negotiations to free them.

But I hope I am wrong

I feel very sorry for them and guess they are victims of their own sheltered existence.

I’m assuming they’ve had very fortunate, safe and comfortable lives, and at some level were aware of that, hence the determination to ‘get out there and push boundaries’. But that very same good fortune and privilege over their combined 100 years of life experience most likely led them into the unconscious belief that “bad things happen to other people but not to us” and taking foolish risks until their luck inevitably ran out.

A cruel awakening indeed.

There must be a Greek drama somewhere about this kind of tempting of fate.

I do feel a bit of sympathy for them but I would feel more sympathy if they were actual spies or journalists or human rights campaigners who entered the country knowing all the risks but putting their personal safety second to a bigger cause. The problem I have with these two is that they were determined to prove that the risk is overblown.

@itsgettingweird I think I've had a crush of RM for about half my life now! He and Judy presenting This Morning were it's halcyon days. Never really watched it since.

I love Madelys openness and straight talking!

As much when he's interviewing twats as when he's interviewing people who have done great. He was brilliant with Niambh (excuse my spelling) who is a deaf student this morning.

They wanted to experience the fullness of what Iran has to offer and they are experiencing it.

It's strange, although I've said on here the same as pretty much every other poster, I woke up in the early hours and couldn't help but wonder where they are, what utter hell they're going through, the realization of how utterly stupid, reckless and arrogant their behavior was. It's pretty unimaginable. Will they have an advocat like NZR's incredible husband I wonder? God what a mess....

Dh has spent a lot of time in Iran with work in the past. Not for 20 years following a visit from some interesting international individuals who advised his company to stop helping Iran build a power station. 🙈. Says it’s a beautiful country but he reckons this couple won’t be getting released anytime soon.

In January a Swiss man being held on espionage charges in Iran killed himself. Or so they say.

This couple are going to need all the luck they can get.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/9/swiss-national-held-by-iran-on-spying-charges-dies-in-jail

Unfortunately if you take the charges literally then they haven't got a leg to stand on. Because they were in fact 'gathering information '. Only the Iranians interpretation of this is far more sinister than their naive folly.

I know people like this, who are so bougie they think something like this would be a life enriching adventure and we normal people are all too 'risk averse'.

They must be going through hell but it is of their own making. They should have known what they were getting into.

Interesting. Thank you.

@Westfacing Hopefully when that inevitably happens they'll get someone like Dickie Madeley who'll tell them straight what twits they are, rather than Lorraine Kelly who'd tell them that they look great and are both very brave.

They'll have another 15 minutes of fame when they're eventually released... breakfast TV and Daily Mail sad-face interviews.

I hope they're freed soon before they get too famous, and too much F&CO time is spent on them.

Did you see the news report today. The silly cards they flash as they read them grinning along, 'I'm happy' 'I'm frustrated ' it's like kids at school. The pair of them look very attention seeking, they have lots of attention now, very infamous.

Not bad just stupid.
Why would you be so naive and arrogant to go against Foreign Office arvice ?