An academic says hostage diplomacy is a well-known tactic of the Iranian regime and New Zealanders should not go to the country.

Topher Richwhite and Bridget Thackwray are understood to have been detained for months after entering Iran.

The New Zealand government negotiated for the safe release of the pair but has remained tight-lipped about the details.

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A senior lecturer from Massey University who was born and raised in Iran, Dr Negar Partow, said there was a pattern of this kind of action in Iran.

However, she told RNZ Morning Report it was not necessarily naive for the couple to visit the country.

When they arrived in July it was much quieter than what it became when the unrest started in September after the death of Mahsa Amini, who was detained by morality police for allegedly not covering her hair properly.

However, travelling in a Jeep — a US brand — might have created suspicions, she said.

NZ not especially targeted
The move against the New Zealanders was not especially targeted at this country, she said, with as many as 70 nations having citizens in Iranian prisons.

“The fact that Iran entered a revolutionary phase complicated the situation and gave the Islamic Republic the opportunity to use them and to create a hostage diplomacy. This is not particular to Aotearoa. They do it all around the world,” she said.

People with dual citizenship, diplomats, activists, and human rights and environmental advocates were especially vulnerable to attention from Iranian authorities.

If the couple had been focusing on environmental concerns that may have made them a target, she said.

“As the Islamic Republic becomes more and more challenged and de-legitimised by this revolution, these hostage crises will increase and they will use any opportunity as a bargaining chip.”

There have been conflicting reports on now the couple were detained.

Dr Partow said Iran used different models, including imprisonment or being detained in a safe house and not being allowed to communicate.

Richwhite and Thackwray would have had their passports confiscated and their cellphones removed with their Instagram posts stopping in July.

She believed they were not put in prison.

Tepid resoponse by NZ
Asked about the tepid response by the New Zealand government to the unrest in Iran, she said the government was trying to do a delicate balancing act while the couple were being detained.

Many Western governments had to resort to hostage diplomacy with Iran.

While Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has warned against visiting Iran due to the potential for violence, Dr Partow said it was important to remember the violence was being perpetrated by the security agencies not the protesters.

She said now that the couple had been freed, she was hopeful Aotearoa would take a stronger stance.

“Yes we have been too kind but I’m hoping that as we come out of this period and everybody’s back to normal diplomacy we will take stronger action against the Islamic republic,” she said.

“As the prime minister mentioned as well, this was a delicate diplomatic situation … we did have two New Zealanders inside Iran detained and I think that [strong criticism of Iran] would create more complications.”

Expulsion of ambassador
The expulsion of the ambassador, campaigning for oil embargoes, speaking out publicly to support the rights of Iranian women and human rights lobbying at the United Nations were among measures New Zealand should be considering.

“Now that we have been the victim of hostage crisis in the Islamic Republic that should give us much more importance into the project and we should actually work on it,” she said.

As for advice for potential visitors, she said: “Definitely not. Iran is in the middle of a revolution.”

Ordinary citizens were not in a position to offer help to foreign tourists and it was far better that they stayed away.

She said as the revolution approached the six-week mark, the response from authorities to the demonstrations was becoming even more violent and oppressive.

Asked about Act’s move to block a motion calling for a unified condemnation of Iran’s oppression of women’s rights unless Greens MP Golriz Ghahraman apologised for interrupting a speech made by party leader David Seymour in the House, she said it should be remembered that the Iranian government was now killing children and this was a more important consideration.

Deputy PM pleased couple released
The government is remaining tight lipped about what it took to secure the release of the couple.

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said Iran was a dangerous place and New Zealanders should obey the travel warnings not to go there.

Consular officials around the world did not judge New Zealanders who got into trouble —  instead they got on with the job of helping them regain their freedom.

“I’m just pleased we’ve been able to get them out.”

Robertson told RNZ First Up he could not comment specifically on the couple’s case — but he said it was important to understand the customs and rules of other countries — and to understand whether you should be there at all.

He said no doubt the pair would reflect on what they have been through.

Call for NZ govt to take strong stand
An Iranian-Kurdish journalist now living in New Zealand said the government needed to do more regarding the actions of Iran’s government.

Behrouz Boochani, who was granted refugee status in New Zealand in July 2020, said New Zealand should speak out loudly against the Iranian regime.

He said the current unrest was a revolution and was a call for regime change in Iran.

While there had been mass protests in the past, this year felt different because it involved more people and more cities.

He said he was delighted the couple had been freed. However, the Iranian community in New Zealand had been disappointed in Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s response to the unrest in Iran to this point.

He said since Mahsa Amini’s death another 250 people had been killed, including more than 20 children.

“So we expect the New Zealand government to strongly condemn this violence and strongly support the protesters on the street and the people of Iran.”

The US and Australia have criticised the Iranian government’s actions and it was time New Zealand followed suit.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A spate of defiant Iranian women have taken to the streets of Tehran to protest against compulsory veiling.

Photos of their demonstrations have been widely circulated online under the hashtag #دختران_خیابان_انقلاب (translated to #Girls_of_Enghelab_Street). At least two women (of the six women appearing in the photos above) have been arrested.

The protests come on the heels of a similar move by an Iranian woman named Vida Movahed, who was arrested on December 27, 2017, after a photo of her silently waving her hijab above her unveiled head on Tehran’s Enghelab Street (“enghelab” means “revolution” in English) went viral.

READ MORE: Women unite for World Hijab Day

Movahed was released from prison on January 27.

Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the hijab became compulsory in various stages. The law was first introduced in March 1979; Iranian women, initially in support of the revolution against the monarchy, came out in the hundreds of thousands to rally against it.

The following year it became mandatory in government and public offices until 1983, when it became mandatory for all women.

The photo of Movahed’s hijab protest, standing atop an electrical box on Enghelab Street, went viral in the context of a wave of anti-government protests that swept the country beginning on December 28, 2017.

But Movahed’s defiance was in fact a mistaken icon for the nationwide protests. She had in fact performed the act as part of her own singular protest on December 27, 2017, for the White Wednesday campaign, in which Iranian women posted photos online of themselves wearing white while discarding their headscarves with the hashtag #whitewednesday. This was part of the My Stealthy Freedom movement founded by exiled journalist Masih Alinejad against mandatory hijab for women.

Human rights organisations such as Amnesty International started to advocate for Movahed’s release after it became known she was arrested shortly after her stand on Enghelab Street’s electrical post. By January 28, Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer inside of Iran, known (and often persecuted) for defending activists and opposition members, announced on her Facebook page that Movahed had been released the previous day:

Translation Original Quote:

The girl from revolution street has been freed.

When I returned to the prosecutor’s office to follow up on the case of the girl of Enghelab Street, the head of the prosecutor’s office told me she was released. I am happy to hear that she returned home yesterday. I hope this judicial case will not be used to harass her for taking up her rights. She has done nothing to justify prosecution. Please do not lay your hands on her [directed at authorities].

A day after the news of Movahed’s release, several women emulated Movahed, standing on electrical posts on Engheblab Street (top right in mash up image).

An informed source told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Narges Hosseini, one of the protesters on Enghelab street, was was arrested on January 29. #girls_ofRevolution

Other women took similar stands, taking off their hijabs on different streets in Tehran, and in one instance in Isfahan, a city in central Iran, according to crowd source reports on Nariman Gharib’s www.enghelabgirls.com. However, the symbolism of the initial protests taking place on Enghelab Street, translated into “Revolution Street”, was not lost on those following the events.

By the afternoon of January 30, several more women were spotted in Tehran taking off their veils, in addition to a man.

My Stealthy Freedom, which organised White Wednesday, the campaign that Movahed was participating in with her original act of defiance, was founded by Masih Alinejad. Alinejad and her movement are controversial in Iran, and sometimes subjected to smear campaigns by Iranian media, and associated with opposition activism inside of the country.

On the “My Stealthy Freedom” Facebook page, Alinejad welcomed those who had previously attacked her campaign but are now engaged in discussing and opposing compulsory hijab in light of the #girls_of_Enghelab_street:

Our #WhiteWednesdays campaign has been making an unstoppable impact and we are more than overjoyed. We are gratified to realize that the compulsory veil is no longer something than can be easily dismissed. It has always been an important issue as it relates to women’s freedom of choice. It is our most basic right. Our campaign has come a long way. We have also realized that people who attacked us yesterday are now onboard supporting our struggle. We warmly welcome them. We at my #StealthyFreedom do not judge people; our campaign is based on mutual respect.

One notable female voice on Iranian social media, Zahra Safyari, declared her support for the #Girls_of_Enghelab_Street and the right of Iranian women to choose to wear or not wear the hijab:

I am a chadori [wearer of a full-body-length cloak called a chador]. I have chosen for myself to be veiled, not for the force of my family, nor for my environment or conditions of my work. I am very happy with my choice but I am against mandatory hijab and I support the #Girls_of_Enghelab_Street. With religion and hijab there should be no force.

Safyari made a point to distance the protests from Masih Alinejad or any opposition movement aiming at overthrowing the Iranian establishment:

#Girls_of_Enghelab_Street are neither overthrowers, followers of Masih Alinejad, or the recipients of any money. They are the girls of this Iranian land who are following their basic rights.

Mahsa Alimardani is the Iran editor for Global Voices as well as an Iranian-Canadian internet researcher. Her focus is on the intersection of technology and human rights, especially as it pertains to freedom of expression and access to information inside Iran.