Sometimes a country’s “bad rep” is entirely justified. Iran is no place for a holiday. It is a rogue nation, a leading state sponsor of terrorism and human rights abuser that has earned its ”axis of evil” title.
The people are by and large lovely, the historic sites are breathtaking, the natural beauty is stunning but the regime is rotten to the core and no amount of equivocation will change that.
I resigned myself long ago to the fact that I will never again see some family members or the many sites of my ancestral home.
Unless a regime change disrupts the reign of the mullahs who took charge after the Islamic Revolution, Iran will remain a danger to the region, to the world and to its citizens and visitors.
Australian travel bloggers Jolie King and Mark Firkin, who are locked in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, had posted about their desire to challenge some of the preconceptions about travelling to countries like Iran. The couple wrote: “Our biggest motivation behind the vlogs is to hopefully inspire anyone wanting to travel. And also try to break the stigma around travelling to countries which get a bad rap in the media.”
Both have been locked up in Iran for about 10 weeks reportedly on charges of flying a drone without a licence. Some of the images the couple have posted during their marathon travel appear to show drone footage for aerial shots. Pouria Zeraati, of Persian-language broadcaster Manoto TV tweeted: “Before Iran, they had travelled to Pakistan and China … Their trial has not yet taken place and it is unclear why the authorities have not yet informed the court.”
The couple left Australia to travel in 2017. Their adventures were documented on their YouTube channel, The Way Overland. The last video posted to more than 20,000 subscribers was on June 26, titled: ‘GET TO PAKISTAN NOW!! — AUSSIES DRIVING PAKISTAN’.
Melbourne University academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert is also in Evin prison and has reportedly been sentenced to 10 years prison on spying charges.






Workers across Australia are being instructed to leave work early to take part in a global climate change protest – as schoolkids skip class. They are joining political forces with radical, socialist green group Extinction Rebellion, whose protesters last month glued themselves to the street in Brisbane (pictured) and













