Kylie Moore-Gilbert

Kylie Moore-Gilbert is the author of the bestselling memoir The Uncaged Sky, which details the two years and three months she spent as a political prisoner in Iran. An expert in Middle East history and politics, Kylie travelled to Iran to take part in an academic conference, only to face arrest at the airport on her way home to Australia. Interrogated for months by Iran’s feared Revolutionary Guards, Kylie was ultimately convicted of espionage in a shadowy trial presided over by the country’s most notorious judge, and received a ten year prison sentence.

Held for a year in solitary confinement, Kylie was pushed to her limits by extreme physical and psychological deprivation. Her only lifeline was the covert friendships she made with other inmates inside Tehran’s Evin prison. To survive, Kylie began to fight back. Multiple hunger strikes, co-ordinated protests and a daring escape attempt led to her transfer to an isolated desert prison called Qarchak to live among convicted criminals. On 25 November 2020, after more than two years of struggle, Kylie was finally released in a high-stakes three-nation prisoner-swap deal, laying bare the complex game of global politics in which she had become a valuable pawn.

Kylie has since become a vocal human rights advocate and has campaigned in support of other victims of arbitrary detention around the world. She has authored several influential academic papers and regularly appears in the media as an analyst and commentator, featuring on programs including ABC Q+A, 7:30 Report, 60 Minutes and BBC Hardtalk. Kylie has been profiled in The New York Times, the BBC, the Guardian, Good Weekend and Sky News and has written for outlets including The Age, The Saturday Paper and CNN.