Dr. Fariba Adelkhah was released from Evin Prison on the evening of February 10, 2023, more than three and a half years after her arrest. It is our understanding that she does not know whether all of her rights will be restored—including her right to travel—as her personal belongings, passport, and other identity papers have not been returned to her. Dr. Adelkhah reportedly must apply for new identity documents before she can request a new passport.

Dr. Adelkhah is director of research at the Institute of Political Studies’ (Sciences Po) Center for International Studies in Paris, where she is renowned for her scientific work on post-revolutionary Iranian society. A dual French and Iranian citizen, Dr. Adelkhah resides in France but has traveled to Iran often for her scholarly research as well as to visit her family. At the time of her arrest in early June 2019, she had been conducting field research for several months in Iran and Afghanistan. Her partner, Dr. Roland Marchal, also a senior social science researcher at Sciences Po and a scholar of conflict and state formation in sub-Saharan Africa, was taken into custody alongside Dr. Adelkhah, while visiting her in Iran. Both researchers were subsequently charged with alleged national security-related crimes. Dr. Adelkhah was additionally charged with espionage, for which she faced a possible death sentence; this charge was subsequently dropped. The reasons for the charges brought against the two researchers have never been disclosed. Dr. Marchal was released from prison in March 2020, after France released an Iranian engineer from detention in an apparent prisoner exchange. Dr. Adelkhah was brought to trial the following month before a Revolutionary Court. One month later, she was convicted and received a five-year sentence for “assembly and collusion against national security” and a one-year sentence for “propaganda against the state,” which were ordered to be served concurrently. Her conviction was subsequently upheld on appeal.

Dr. Adelkhah was held under harsh conditions of confinement, leading her to undertake a 49-day hunger strike in late 2019 that resulted in severe kidney damage. In late 2020, she was temporarily transferred to house arrest for approximately a year, reportedly for health reasons. Throughout her imprisonment, Dr. Adelkhah was denied French consular assistance as Iran does not recognize her dual citizenship.