Kameel Ahmady is a British-Iranian scholar working in the field of social anthropology, with a particular focus on gender, children, ethnic minorities, and child labour.

Most of his research in recent years, which is carried out in teams and fieldwork based, has been done in connection with the Middle East, Kurdish studies, Iranian culture and social issues.

The infamous judge Abolqasem Salavati of the Islamic Revolutionary Court formally charged Ahmady with trying to secure socio-cultural changes in the Islamic Republic by allegedly conducting "subversive" research related to social issues, such as lobbying to raise the age of child marriage, promoting homosexuality, trying to divide Iran through scientific research, sending false reports to the human-rights rapporteur of the UN, and several other charges.

[53][27][57][29] Given his background in anthropology and ethnography, Kameel Ahmady has made numerous trips to various parts of the world such as north Africa, Europe, south-west Asia, and the Middle East to conduct research and carry out participant observation.

The work was undertaken in cooperation with the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (Kanoon Fakri o Parverashi Kodek o Nojavan).

Photographic, textual and interview data were collected during a three-month period working with children and young adults as well as members of staff at the centre, parents, and local leaders.

[66][67] The initial aim of this research was to examine the factors that shape a sense of belonging and place among young people in Mahabad, a town on the north-western periphery of Iran.

The works they produced were then placed in a week-long public exhibition in Mahabad, where further data were gathered from a guest book of reactions to the event and observation notes taken at the time.

Particularly with respect to issues of gender, there appears to be a strong desire for more public debate, but an ambivalence about the role of hybrid influences as positive or negative.

Additionally, local forms of identity based on Kurdish resistance to a dominant nationalism are sometimes discernible, as is the overarching context of recent global events drawing Iran into direct political confrontations with Western powers.

This fieldwork team research was conducted discontinuously between 2004 and 2014 in the rural areas and villages of four provinces: West Azarbaijan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and Hormozgan.

[44][108][109] From his field findings, Ahmady concluded that the most important factors in the continuation of child marriage in Iran are poverty, low levels of education and literacy, the lack of legal protection, social pressures in a male-driven society, and traditional and religious beliefs.

The disintegration of gender stereotypes, freedom of choice, a reluctance to formally marry, social exclusion, a lack of support, and fear of prosecution were identified as the most important consequences of White marriage in Iran.

[41][144][145][146] It attempted to investigate the challenges they face as a result of living in a religious, class-orientated, traditional and patriarchal society that rejects same-sex preference as an identity.

The fourth chapter of the book presents solutions to reduce harm based on the knowledge gained from the fieldwork, and the views of experts and the target community.

There was a lack of comprehensive and purposeful studies on the common practice of waste-picking, an ignorance of the problem, and a substantial risk to children, which led Ahmady to conduct the research.

The detailed study aimed to recognise the phenomenon of garbage collection, investigate the factors increasing the practice in children, and recommend ways to reduce the harms of this work.

[170][171] This research attempted to perform a detailed and multi-faceted assessment of the situation of five major ethnic groups – the Azeris, Kurds, Baloch, Arabs and Persians – in 13 provinces of Iran.

This research points to the diversity of identity/ethnicity in contemporary Iran, which, accompanied by globalisation processes, has created a type of inter-ethnic conflict that tends to seek identity and justice to eliminate discrimination and inequalities and achieve social development.

As evidenced by the awards and recognition of his work, Kameel's studies have significantly contributed to our understanding of very important issues such as female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), early child marriage (ECM) and other social contexts in the Middle East and Iran.

[230][231][232] On 13 December 2020, Reuters and other news agencies reported that Judge Abolqasem Salavati, the head of the 15th Branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, had handed down a nine-year jail sentence after convicting Ahmady of conducting "subversive" research.

"[21][23][222] Ahmady stated on Twitter and Facebook that he had been denied access to a lawyer during his detention:"Contrary to all legal analysis and hope for fair judgment, I was sentenced to 9 years and 3 months.

During my last year 100 days of detention and extrajudicial interrogation without access to a lawyer, and this sentence was issued by judge Salavati after two non-expert court hearings in a process full of legal flaws.

[2] On 13 December 2020, Reuters and other news agencies reported that judge Abolqasem Salavati, the head of the 15th branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, had handed a nine-year jail sentence to British-Iranian anthropologist Kameel Ahmady, after convicting him of conducting "subversive" research work.

During my last year 100 days of detention and extrajudicial interrogation without access to a lawyer, and this sentence was issued by judge Salavati after two non-expert court hearings in a process full of legal flaws.

After nearly one hundred days in Evin Prison, including time in solitary confinement, he decided to flee and crossed the mountainous north-west border of Kurdistan, using smuggling routes.

During interviews with the BBC and The Guardian, he alleged that "the regime was opposed to his work on FGM and early child marriage" and that he was arrested in part as a response to the British Government's seizure of an Iranian ship.

"[26] Before his decision to flee, he had faced restrictions on his presence in seminars and universities, cancelation of permissions to publish new books, and the removal of his articles and essays from journals, and academic websites and forced some of my colleagues to give confession against me.

[257][258][259] In the wake of these accusations, Ahmady issued a statement in his Instagram page saying that he deny any of such allegations but welcome criticism on himself for not fully understanding the importance of power relations at work and apologised for any mistakes or hurting anyone due to what he said was my relaxed attitude and different views toward relationships.

[256][260] In his respond to the Guardian report, he said since my escape from Iran, rival individuals and groups have been brought to bear upon me with the sole intention of destroying me, my research, as well as my professional and personal standing but this determent him even more to carry and the same time to learn.