Read a Q&A with Kylie Moore-Gilbert | The Uncaged Sky

Kylie Moore-Gilbert is a scholar of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. Kylie speaks several Middle Eastern languages and has spent significant periods travelling and conducting academic research in the region. She was falsely charged with espionage and imprisoned in Iran from September 2018 to November 2020 before being released in a prisoner exchange deal negotiated by the Australian government. The Uncaged Sky is Kylie’s first book, one that tells the extraordinary true story of her fight to survive 804 days of imprisonment.

Today, Kylie Moore-Gilbert is on the blog to answer a few of our questions about her book. Read on …

Kylie Moore-Gilbert

Please tell us about your book, The Uncaged Sky.

KMG: The Uncaged Sky tells the true and full story of the 804 days I spent incarcerated in Iran from 2018-2020, including the people I met, how I survived, and how I was eventually freed as part of a complex trilateral prisoner swap.

When did you know that you wanted to write a memoir about your experiences in Iran? Why was it important to you to tell this story?

KMG: While I was still in prison I decided that I would, one day, write my story in my own words. I feel it is my duty to draw attention to what is happening in Iran’s prisons, and to speak out about the fate of the others I left behind there.

Has writing this book altered your perspective on your time in Iran? If so, how?

KMG: Writing The Uncaged Sky has helped me to draw a line under what happened to me, and look to a future where Iran does not define me. It has enabled me to process these events, and start to move on from them.

What surprised you the most about life in prison?

KMG: I was surprised by the depths to which some people would sink to save themselves. At the same time, I was surprised by the strength and speed with which solidarity and bonds of friendship can form between prisoners.

Can you describe how you felt when you learnt that you were to be freed?

KMG: I did not allow myself to feel anything. Up until the last moments, I held back hope in the expectation that something would go wrong, and the deal would fall through.

How have your experiences altered your understanding of what it means to have freedom?

KMG: I now understand that freedom is the most precious thing we humans possess. It is like air. You can’t survive without it, but don’t notice it’s there until it’s suddenly taken away from you.

Can you tell us a little bit about your journey towards becoming a writer?

KMG: I have been a writer all of my life. As a child I would write poetry and short stories, and as an academic I wrote research papers. The Uncaged Sky is merely the next step on my writing journey.

What is the last book you read and loved?

KMG: Red Notice by Bill Browder.

What do you hope readers will discover in The Uncaged Sky?

KMG: I hope they will learn something about the complexity of the human condition, and that even in the darkest of places kindness still flourishes.

And finally, what’s up next for you?

KMG: I want to advocate for the friends I left behind and other victims of cruel and unjust authoritarian regimes, both in Iran and further afield.

Thanks Kylie!

—The Uncaged Sky by Kylie Moore-Gilbert (Ultimo Press) is out now.

The Uncaged Sky

My 804 days in an Iranian prison

by Kylie Moore-Gilbert

On September 12, 2018 British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert was arrested at Tehran Airport by Iran’s feared Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Convicted of espionage in a shadowy trial presided over by Iran’s most notorious judge, Dr Moore-Gilbert was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin and Qarchak prisons for 804 days, this is the full and gripping account of her harrowing ordeal. Held in a filthy solitary confinement cell for months, and subjected to relentless interrogation, Kylie was...

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