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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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:
Thread gallery
10
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.

Show quote history

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

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.

LadyGaGasPokerFace · 15/02/2025 19:39

Middle class boredom got the better of them 🙄

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.

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/

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

StScholastica · 15/02/2025 22:16

My DDs best friend (met at Uni) is from Iran and lives in fear that she will be sent back. Currently has one more year to work here as a doctor before she can apply for citizenship.
She misses her family and wants to go home but it's just not safe at present.
These two people are clueless. I really hope that the lives of others are not endangered in a rescue attempt.

NotVeryFunny · 15/02/2025 22:32

GlitchStitch · 15/02/2025 17:36

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14400895/Captive-British-couple-Craig-Lindsay-Foremans-haunting-post-ignoring-advice-travel-Iran.html

The link above shows posts from them saying they are ignoring advice from their family, friends and the foreign office. I hope nobody is put at risk to rescue them.

They sound incredibly naive.

MrsTerryPratchett · 15/02/2025 22:53

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.

Tajikistan and Iran are very very different places with regard to safety. I would travel to the first at the moment (avoiding Pamir and the Afghan border etc.). But the country is largely fine to travel in. Iran, absolutely not at the moment.

Honestly, people have just been killed in Germany.

Bloom15 · 15/02/2025 23:02

StScholastica · 15/02/2025 22:16

My DDs best friend (met at Uni) is from Iran and lives in fear that she will be sent back. Currently has one more year to work here as a doctor before she can apply for citizenship.
She misses her family and wants to go home but it's just not safe at present.
These two people are clueless. I really hope that the lives of others are not endangered in a rescue attempt.

They aren't clueless though - they just thought this problems wouldn't apply to them. As best naive and at worst wilfully ignorant

snowsjoke · 15/02/2025 23:23

It'll make the best dinner party story.

sandrapinchedmysandwich · 15/02/2025 23:54

Chuchoter · 15/02/2025 18:28

Why is she gurning like a loon in the photos like she is possessed?

I can't imagine the fun police/hardcore Islamists thinking that's an acceptable way for a woman to behave in their 'women should be covered up and quiet' Islamic country .

To be honest, I would take exception to her manic mannerisms here in Wales 😕

Misogynistic much?

Yeah they were stupid and irresponsible. But commenting on just the woman's mannerisms is out of order and it has nothing really to do with this

BlondiePortz · 15/02/2025 23:56

People make stupid decisions and never think about the people who have bail them out and put their lives at risk helping these people

Mittens67 · 16/02/2025 00:01

What’s the betting that the bloke was the instigator and the woman went along with it despite her own misgivings?
How many of us have been persuaded into something stupid to please a man?
I know I certainly was at various points in my life.

Whammyyammy · 16/02/2025 00:02

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Their arrogance got them into this mess.

ThinWomansBrain · 16/02/2025 00:07

They are twats
"Yes, we're aware of the risks,,but we also know the rewards of meeting incredible people, hearing their stories, and seeing the breathtaking landscapes of these regions could far outweigh the fear."
They should be charged for any time expended in getting them released by the British Government or authorities - or wait for the Spanish government to so it, since that's where they live.

I'm sure an Iranian prison will enhance her sense of travel continuing "to teach me that humanity's core is shared: kindness, humility, and respect for one another."

Aposterhasnoname · 16/02/2025 00:08

I’d love to go to Iran, North Korea, and Afghanistan, but I won’t, cos I’m not fucking stupid

saraclara · 16/02/2025 00:23

Mittens67 · 16/02/2025 00:01

What’s the betting that the bloke was the instigator and the woman went along with it despite her own misgivings?
How many of us have been persuaded into something stupid to please a man?
I know I certainly was at various points in my life.

The most enthusiastic travellers to less-travelled countries that I know (I'm one of them so I know quite a few) are female. I see no reason to assume that the husband coerced her.

FiveBarGate · 16/02/2025 00:54

The 'recording people' stories ' but made me do a double eye roll.

Wasn't the charge again Nazanin that she was accused of being a journalist. And so interviewing people would be especially unwise. Even if it's about the most mundane of topics.

WellsAndThistles · 16/02/2025 00:57

Really hope none of this costs us UK tax payers, they knew the risks and can sort themselves out.

Lorelaigilmore88 · 16/02/2025 00:59

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 15/02/2025 16:50

I have zero sympathy- classic middle class arrogance, assuming they know better than all the advice.

100% agree with this. Everything i have read about them just smacks of a pair or annoying, middle class idiots who thought they knew better than people who are experts in the area. And now the government is going to have to waste time and energy sorting it out.