Kaveh Madani was sitting in the Iranian vice president’s office in Tehran when he got the job offer: move back to Iran and help President Hassan Rouhani’s government deal with the country’s acute water shortages.
The 36-year-old scientist, an expert in water management at Imperial College London, accepted the role with one condition. “Just make sure I’m approved by the system. I don’t want to end up in jail,” he said.
It was a promise that Mr Rouhani’s government was not able to keep.
Mr Madani’s move back to Iran was seen as a symbol of the president’s ambition to open the country up to the world and attract its brightest young people home from the West. That vision crashed headfirst into…