IRAN is one of the most ancient countries in the world and by all accounts is also one of the most beautiful.
But sadly it is also one of the most unwelcoming to westerners due to decades of serious mistrust by the nation’s conservative Islamic leaders.
It has been run as a harsh, hardline Islamic state ever since the Shah was overthrown in 1979 and the problems with the West worsened.
Under its supreme ruler, the Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, it is not renowned for being a barrels of laughs, particularly for the female population.
It is hard to image a frivolous TV show like Iran’s Got Talent ever being aired to cheer up the nation on a Friday night.
So it is reasonable to ask what New Zealanders Topher Richwhite and Bridget Thackwray were thinking of when they pitched up on Iran’s borders in July seeking to get in.
The delightfully named couple were part of a tour they were documenting for their social media page, Expedition Earth on Instagram.
In a fossil-fuel burning car too but we'll gloss over that.
He is the son of one of the richest men in New Zealand so travelling the world taking selfies in far flung places is second nature to him.
Until he got to Iran.
Quite why they thought it would be acceptable to cut about Tehran in loafers taking selfies is beyond me, but stupidity of this sort seems to be the preserve of self-entitled rich kids.
They appear to think that if you have enough money then you can get in anywhere. A greased palm is a greased palm, after all.
But not, it seems, in Iran.
In a video since deleted from their page, Mr Richwhite said the couple had been stopped at the Iranian border, where the vehicle was inspected.
Their page – usually filled with colourful updates of their adventures – fell silent soon after a terse meeting with border officials.
New Zealand media reported that the newlyweds had not been imprisoned, but that they were unable to leave Iran and that their movements were being restricted and monitored by regime officials. Tehran insisted that the pair had not been imprisoned or detained, and the government in Wellington was reluctant to comment while discussions were ongoing – in fear of jeopardising their release.
In September, New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta raised the issue with her Iranian counterpart, and the couple were finally released on Tuesday after months of negotiations.
The couple say they are “extremely relieved” to have finally returned home.
Despite some speculation in local media, New Zealand’s government insisted that it had not given Tehran anything to secure their release.
“There is no deal, there’s nothing in return. Absolutely not ... I can absolutely guarantee you no deal has been done,” Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said.
Westerners have frequently been detained by the Iranian regime, which seeks to use them as bargaining chips to secure concessions from governments which have sanctioned it.
As a result, most western countries – including New Zealand – advise against travelling to Iran. Now, some in New Zealand’s media have, quite rightly, questioned why the couple ignored that advice.
Mike Yardley, a columnist with Newshub, questioned why “so-called travel influencers were oblivious to that status – or spurned the official advice and threw caution to the wind”.
He added: “Either way, self-responsibility was sadly lacking.”
The New Zealand government has now updated its travel advice for Iran by advising all its citizens to leave the country.
It has now emerged that a Spanish football fan trekking from Madrid to Doha, in Qatar, for the World Cup has also been arrested in Iran.
Santiago Sanchez’s family went public with a plea for information after silence upon entering Iran.
Forget for one second why anyone would want to walk to a World Cup, it begs the question: what it is it about Iran that attracts attention seekers who seem not to care about their own government’s advice and plough on regardless?.
Needless to say, it is those same governments that have to act to get them out safely.
Constantly taking selfies is barely acceptable in the West, let alone in a hardline country such as Iran.
But I suspect that rather than learn the lesson, the couple probably just took a selfie on landing in Wellington and posted it on social media with a laughing emoji.
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