At what point are the rest of us required to rescue other people from the entirely foreseeable consequences of their own stupid actions? ‘Don’t come crying to me about it!’ was Dad’s frequent admonishment. Clearly, some people were never brought up to face the consequences of their own actions.
A British couple jailed in Iran after being accused of espionage have gone on hunger strike in a “cry out for help”, their son has told the BBC.
Craig and Lindsay Foreman were on an around-the-world motorbike trip when they were arrested by Iranian authorities in January.
Oh, no! If only someone had tried to warn them.
Oh, wait…
FCDO advises against all travel to Iran. If you are a British national already in Iran, either resident or visitor, carefully consider your presence there and the risks you take by staying.
British and British-Iranian dual nationals are at significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention. Having a British passport or connections to the UK can be reason enough for the Iranian authorities to detain you.
Oh, but that surely doesn’t apply to middle-class couples wanting a cheap holiday in other peoples’ misery? (h/t to my boy Johnny Rotten.) Unfortunately, as Pippa Bacca found out the hardest possible way, the troglodytes of backwards Islamic theocracies don’t give much of a fuck that you’re “research[ing] positive psychology and the concept of a good life”. No more than they did about some silly bint dressed as a bride hitchhiking across the Middle East to promote world peace.
Harsh as their plight obviously is, the Foremans should count themselves lucky they didn’t, like poor, naive, Pippa, end up raped and murdered and dumped in a ditch in an Islamic shithole.
Joe Bennett, Lindsay’s son, described the charges against them as “ludicrous”. He said his mother had told him “not eating was the only power she’s got”, in the seven-and-a-half minute phone call she was permitted on Tuesday.
“She said she felt lost and let down by the government here as well as the authorities in Iran,” he added. The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) has been approached for comment.
Again, if only they’d been warned.
UK government support is extremely limited in Iran. No face-to-face consular assistance will be possible in an emergency and the UK government will not be able to help you if you get into difficulty in Iran.
Read that last bit again.
The Foremans’ family say they entered Iran with valid visas, a licensed guide and a pre-approved itinerary – as rules there stipulate.
Again, the Foreign Office had that one covered: Having a British passport or connections to the UK can be reason enough for the Iranian authorities to detain you.
They couldn’t have made that any clearer.
The collision with reality for these nongs would be almost funny if it wasn’t so dire. Lindsay Foreman, who bills herself as a “senior lecturer at Institute of Positive Psychology Coaching” is suddenly finding that a sunny disposish won’t get you far, when you swap the comfortable existence of a middle-class English expat in Spain for the harsh reality of an Islamic theocracy.
[Joe Bennett] said his mother was “usually a very positive person” and it was the first time he’d heard his mother upset.
“Positivity only lasts so long against reality,” he said.
Indeed, insisting on positivity is often asking for trouble. Our species thrived because we learned to assume that danger signals really did mean mortal danger. Too many of us in the comfortable West have forgotten that skill.
