How knitting for daughter kept alive Nazanin’s dream of freedom
NAZANIN Zaghari-Ratcliffe says she survived the horrors of an Iranian jail by knitting a “freedom pinafore” for her then baby daughter.
The British-Iranian author was held in prison from 2016 to 2022 amid a long dispute between the two countries, but used her creativity to stave off despair and boredom.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe told Harper’s Bazaar UK she made use of scraps of wool that had been donated by female captives who were shortly to be freed from Tehran’s Evin prison.
Creative
She added: “I knitted a lot. I crocheted small flower motifs in various colours and by joining them together I made a pinafore for my baby girl [Gabriella, now nine].
“I called it the ‘freedom pinafore’ because the wool I used once belonged to those who were freed. I also knitted woollen hats and gave them away as presents.”
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 45, said knitting and sewing her own clothes plus sharing creative outlets with other prisoners helped maintain links to the outside world. She added: “Identical uniforms in prisons are used as a tool.
“The idea behind giving every inmate an oversize, cheap uniform in deliberately dull colours is to dehumanise them.
“You are no longer yourself. You are just a number.”
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held in Iran on April 3, 2016, and later jailed for five years, accused of plotting to topple the government. She was freed after husband Richard’s lengthy campaign
She told Harper’s: “We were a group of women cooking, reading, fighting and creating together. Our experience was repetitive and regimented, and how to pass the time was the main challenge.
“To cope, we used every occasion to celebrate by holding on to little things that connected us to our life beyond prison walls.
“Giving away presents at the time of release was a fundamental practice.”