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The Uncaged Sky

My 804 days in an Iranian prison

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The Uncaged Sky

By: Kylie Moore-Gilbert
Narrated by: Kylie Moore-Gilbert
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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 pushed to the limits of her endurance by extreme physical and psychological deprivation.

Kylie’s only lifeline was the covert friendships she made with other prisoners inside the Revolutionary Guards’ maximum-security compound where she had been ‘disappeared’, communicating in great danger through the air vents between cells, and by hiding secret letters in hava khori, the narrow outdoor balcony where she was led, blindfolded, for a solitary hour each day.

Cut off from the outside world, Kylie realised she alone had the power to change the dynamics of her incarceration. To survive, she began to fight back, adopting a strategy of resistance with her captors. Multiple hunger strikes, letters smuggled to the media, co-ordinated protests with other prisoners and a daring escape attempt led to her transfer to the isolated desert prison, Qarchak, to live among convicted criminals.

On November 25, 2020, after more than two years of struggle, Kylie was finally released in a high stakes three-nation prisoner swap deal orchestrated by the Australian government, laying bare the complex game of global politics in which she had become a valuable pawn.

Written with extraordinary insight and vivid immediacy, The Uncaged Sky is Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s remarkable story of courage and resilience, and a powerful meditation on hope, solidarity and what it means to be free.©2022 Kylie Moore-Gilbert (P)2022 W. F. Howes Ltd Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Women Iran Middle East Emotionally Gripping
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…and well narrated by the author. Kylie Moore Gilbert captures the horror of her unfair imprisonment alongside glimpses of beauty and friendship.

Beautifully written…

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To hear more about how it is to survive prison and especially solitary confinement is very good for the psyche and one appreciates how strong the human spirit is and our own freedom

Excellently told and read by Author

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A brilliant narration and gripping, thoughtful account of her experience in Iran. One of the best books I've read this year.

Amazing

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There are parts of this story that don't show Kylie in a very good light - like lying to her husband to try and get him to Iran (knowing he'd be captured like her), her response to the IRG love-entanglement (talking to Kazu Zade's wife, really????) and using another prisoner's son to try and make contact with her family (knowing how ruthless the IRG are - The son was imprisoned, Kylie 'felt bad' in her words).

But i have the upmost respect for her brutal honesty in telling all parts of the tale. She is a great story teller and enlightened me on a country, a brutal regime, a lawlessness and ordinary people that i knew nothing about. She lived through hell, emotional and psychological torture, lack of basic human rights and survived such a long time in the hands of people who could lie and do whatever they liked to her and she (and the Australian government) were powerless to stop it. Her strength and resilience can only be admired - I'm not sure i'd have done as well as her in the same situation.

I highly recommend this book, it's a real eye-opener. The story will live with me for a very long time, it's unforgettable.

Wow!

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I am astounded by her incredible resilience and humanity throughout her ordeal. She recounts not only her story but the story of many prisoners, guards and officials in Iran with insightful compassion, intelligence and humanity.
Her own voice reading the words gives the listener an deeper emotional connection with her story and the lives of many diverse groups still in prison in Iran: members of religious groups, lawyers, political activists, people who cannot afford to pay for their release, mothers, academics, and still others in the wrong place at the wrong time.
She also manages to explain the wider political context of the brutal repression of protest and free speech in Iran and the Iranian regime's use of hostage 'diplomacy', which eventually saw her release.
Kylie, through this book, advocates that international media attention is important to see improvements in conditions/hope for release for her friends still in prison in Iran and also for morale, to know that people care.

Much more than a simple recount of Kylie's story

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