The news we hadn’t dared to hope for: Two weeks to hang out with Nazanin
Richard Ratcliffe is grinning just as widely as his wife Nazanin on their last Skype call. “It’s been so lovely to see her with a big grin on her face,” he says. “She’s been catching up with lots of old friends today, and it’s so nice to see her doing those normal things, and feeling like a person again. That’s been truncated for her for the last four years.”
Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe, 41, has been imprisoned in Iran’s notorious Evin prison since April 2016. She had taken her daughter Gabriella, then just 22 months old, on holiday to visit her parents in Tehran. They were stopped by Iranian Revolutionary Guards at the airport on their way back to their north London home, where Richard was waiting for them, and Nazanin was sentenced to five years in jail for espionage – a charge that Nazanin and her whole family vehemently deny.
Richard, now 45, has spent the last four years campaigning for Nazanin’s release. This week, he received news he hadn’t dared to hope for: his wife has been released on a two-week furlough from prison for Nowruz [Iranian new year] as part of emergency measures to curb the country’s coronavirus epidemic. Nazanin is now staying with her parents in Tehran, and although she has an ankle monitor that prohibits her from leaving a 300m radius of their home, she is “euphoric” about her new, temporary freedom.
For most of Nazanin’s imprisonment, Gabriella was living with her grandparents in Tehran, so she could visit her mother in prison once a week – visits that Nazanin credits with “saving her life”. But late last year, after Gabriella turned five, her parents brought her back to England to be reunited with her father and begin school. For the past three months, Richard has been adjusting to being a “real dad” again, while Nazanin’s contact with her daughter has been reduced to one phone call a week.
He is aware that this is emotionally tough for mother and daughter. In August 2018, Nazanin was released on a three-day furlough, which she spent with Gabriella. When Nazanin was sent back to jail, Gabriella spent the next week waking in the middle of the night, crying and screaming for her mother. “This time, it’s a halfway experience for them reuniting,” says Richard. “It’s probably a double-edged sword for both of them.”
Around 85,000 Iranian prisoners are said to have been granted furlough for their new year and Nazanin believes her inclusion in this figure is a positive step forward that could result in her eventual release – particularly as Iran’s Supreme Leader has said he’ll grant clemency to 10,000 prisoners whose sentences are five years or less.
“We’d be an obvious one to get this. Nazanin is very excited. She’s had her taste of freedom and wouldn’t want to go backwards,” says Richard. But after four years of hope and disappointment, he is cautious, particularly about the impact of the global coronavirus situation on his wife’s freedom.
He claims that Nazanin is being held as a “bargaining chip” over a 40-yearold arms deal between Britain and Iran that fell through and resulted in a legal dispute over £387million. It’s why he has been calling for Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister – who he and Gabriella met in January – to take action.
‘This time, it’s a halfway experience for them reuniting. It’s probably a doubleedged sword for both of them’
Over the next two weeks of Nazanin’s furlough, Richard will continue campaigning and watching closely for any positive signs from Iran. But he is also keen to enjoy this moment.
“I’m looking forward to talking to her honestly about Gabriella,” says Richard. “She is settling much more into life here. Her English is quite good now, and she’s insistent on speaking it all the time now.”
He pauses. “Most relationships are built on chewing time, the growing old together. I’m looking forward to us having some quiet husband-and-wife time in these two weeks, on Skype, just hanging out together. That’s all I want really.”