We are a family again… but in a virtual sense
Richard Ratcliffe describes his joy over wife Nazanin’s temporary release from prison in Iran, and promises to fight on for her freedom
Ihad just woken up on Thursday when the phone rang. It was a Skype call from my wife Nazanin. I thought I was still dreaming. It was the first time I had seen her in two years. She looked well. She was smiling as she told me the big news: she’d been let out of prison in Iran for three days’ furlough and was at her parents’ home with our daughter Gabriella.
It was all completely sudden. Nazanin had been told furlough was a possibility but she had been let down before and had not believed it. She had been woken early that morning, still in her pyjamas, by guards and told to get dressed in 10 minutes because she was being released. She called her brother when she taken to the prison gate and he was there within minutes. That was when she called me, totally euphoric.
She was going to have three whole days with Gabriella – an unimaginable luxury after two years of just spending an hour with her daughter each week in prison.
Nazanin went straight to family Eid celebrations, where she saw her grandma for the first time since her imprisonment. “I was so emotional,” she told me. “I cried so much. I felt so overwhelmed.”
Her only goal for these few days is to spend time with Gabriella, and be a normal mummy again. “The thought of brushing her hair, giving her a bath, of being able to take her to the park, and feed her, and sleep next to her – it is still so hard to believe”, she told me.
Nazanin has been locked up in a jail in Tehran since April 2016.
She has been accused of spying and sentenced to five years – ludicrous charges with zero basis in reality. Her only crime was going home to see her parents in Iran on holiday, taking Gabriella – then a baby – with her. She was imprisoned on her way back to London and Gabriella is being brought up by her grandparents in Tehran.
This temporary release has been incredible for both of them. Gabriella ran outside to pick flowers and greet her mother’s arrival – an Iranian tradition – and was bursting with excitement to show her mum all her toys and her bedroom. For Nazanin, it was the first time in two years that she was able to do the one thing she’s missed more than anything – let her daughter fall asleep in her lap and just watch her sleep.
Gabriella has adapted to being in Iran and in some ways grown more distant from me, but when they called me on Skype later in the day it felt like Nazanin and I were back to being mummy and daddy again. It reunited us as a family in a virtual sense.
Right now, it’s only for three days, but there is a strong possibility of it being extended. Nazanin has had cellmates who were initially released for just three days but are still out on furlough a month later. I don’t know if I’d go out to see her – it’s easy to get ahead of ourselves. Her lawyer has been really positive about having it extended, and the Iranian ambassador to London has tweeted a photo of her release and talked about trying to find a humanitarian release for her – all of which seem to be really positive.
I don’t know why the Iranian authorities decided to do it now. I think part of it is down to us having a new Foreign Secretary in Jeremy Hunt. It’s nothing to criticise Boris Johnson, but it was a fresh start and allowed us to push for new developments.
But this furlough couldn’t have come at a better moment. This summer we’ve been really despondent, feeling like no one cares, with nothing moving. Unsurprisingly, Nazanin has been really depressed.
Earlier in June, she was promised furlough to be out for Gabriella’s fourth birthday. It was all planned
– the party with the chocolate cake, the presents, the games. But it didn’t happen. That was really hard for her, and she was in a really dark place.
Gabriella asked her: “Why couldn’t you come to my party? Why?” It was a question Nazanin was asking herself, and it was really tough for her to hear it from her daughter. She became really cynical about her situation, saying, “What is this game and why are they playing it?” She was very bleak and I’ve been worried about her.
Over the years she has tried to go on hunger strikes, and that has been really hard. She has promised us she won’t do it again, but only a couple of days ago she was having another panic attack and fearing the worst.
I know that she is always going to have emotional scars from this and it will be a journey to come back. I don’t know what’s going to happen now. This feels like a big step forward,
This feels like a big step forward but we still don’t know how big – and if there will be a step back
Gabriella asked her mother: ‘Why didn’t you come to my party? Why?’ It was really tough for Nazanin to hear
but we still don’t know how big, and if there will be a step back.
We’ll take it day by day, and I’m not going to let myself believe this is the end until it happens. Today feels more hopeful, and after speaking to Nazanin and seeing her with her entire family, and the normality of children squabbling and tea being drunk, this nightmare has all felt a world away.
It was like having her on holiday with her family – as though she was going to come back to the UK any moment. The house is the same as when she left it. Her artwork is on the walls and her scarves hang in the hall.
It’s going to be very hard for Nazanin to go back to prison after this – whether it’s after three, or seven, or 30 days. I wouldn’t know how I’d handle that either, having to say goodbye to her on Skype. We would cross that bridge if we came to it but it would be tough.
None of us thought this promised furlough would ever happen, so we’re just going to enjoy these days, and I’m going to speak to them on Skype as much as I can, every day. But part of me feels it’s not the time to sit around – I need to keep my promise to keep campaigning until she’s home. Right now she’s halfway home, but it’s still not home.