Fariba Adelkhah and Kylie Moore-Gilbert, two researchers incarcerated in Iran, released a letter on Tuesday mentioning the psychological torture and the denial of legal rights that they have suffered, and announced that they are going on hunger strike.

The two researchers state that they have been incarcerated only for their academic activities in Iran.

They have asked their family, friends, and supporters to refuse to drink food or water on Christmas day in support of academic freedom.

The two incarcerated academics have also stated that they are attempting this hunger strike on behalf of all the researchers and academics in Iran and the Middle East who have been unjustly incarcerated for their research work.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert is the professor of Islamic Studies at Melbourne University in Australia and was arrested in Iran in the fall of 2018. She has been sentenced to ten years in prison for espionage. She is an Australian-British national.

The government of Australia has described her situation as “complicated”, and said the government is working for her release. The Foreign Minister of Australia announced that he will not accept the charge of espionage for Kylie.

Adelkhah is an Iranian-French researcher who was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Spring of 2019 with similar charges.

President Macron called her incarceration unacceptable.