The wife of a renowned Iranian-British anthropologist held in custody in Tehran says that the judicial authorities have decided to extend her husband's investigative detention for another month once again.
Iranian-British anthropologist, Kameel Ahmady, was arrested at his home in the Iranian capital city Tehran on August 11.
In a tweet on Thursday, September 12, Ms. Shafaq Rahmani said that the authorities have not yet declared charges against her husband, Kameel Ahmady.
However, according to her tweet, she managed to meet her husband at the prosecutor's office where Ahmadi told her the interrogators have focused their investigation on his research activities.
In an interview days after her husband's detention, Ms. Rahmani had also told Radio Farda that her husband had not been officially charged but prosecutors in Tehran's infamous prison, Evin, said that her husband faced a series of charges related to unspecified activities.
Kameel Ahmadi, born in the city of Mahabad, is a Tehran resident renowned for his research and studies on controversial issues, including child brides.
The award-winning researcher, who is a member of the Kurdish minority in Iran, has been transferred to a three-inmate cell in Evin prison, run by the fearsome Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
"My husband was granted British citizenship 25 years ago but had been living in Iran in the past fifteen years," Ms. Rahmani told Radio Farda.
Ahmady took global campaigners by surprise in June 2015 when he published a study suggesting tens of thousands of Iranian women have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM.)
Before Ahmady's disclosure, Iran was not believed to be among the countries affected by FGM - an ancient ritual which is internationally condemned as a serious rights violation.
But Ahmady's research, based on 4,000 interviews, showed FGM is also performed in "secret pockets" of four Iranian provinces; West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Kermanshah in the west and Hormozgan in the south, Reuters reported at the time.
Ahmady's research work includes five books and three short ethnographic documentaries, made in various regions of the World and Iran.
