Nazanin: Murray’s win lifted my spirits in jail
She tells tearful tennis ace of Wimbledon escapism
THERE were few chinks of light during her six- year detention in an Iranian jail.
But Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has revealed that one came all the way from south-west London – when her jailors let her watch Sir Andy Murray clinch his second Wimbledon title on a television in her cell.
And, as the tennis star fought back tears yesterday, the 44-yearold British-Iranian dual national told him how ‘ecstatic’ she was to see him lift the trophy.
She said he offered an ‘ escape’ from her ordeal in the Tehran prison amid claims she was plotting to overthrow the Iranian government – which she has always denied.
Sir Andy’s voice cracked with emotion as they met at the Lawn Tennis Association in Roehampton, London, for her stint as guest editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained by the Iranian authorities in 2016 as she was set to fly home from a visit to Iran with her then two-year-old daughter Gabriella. But Mrs ZaghariRatcliffe insisted she had merely taken her daughter to visit family.
She was released in March this year, after a campaign by her British husband Richard Ratcliffe.
In the chat with Sir Andy, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe shockingly revealed how she sometimes missed jail.
When asked whether she did anything positive with her time in prison, she said: ‘When I came out, there were times when I felt like I really missed my friends and missed prison. It’s a very odd thing to say.’
Speaking about watching Sir Andy take the Wimbledon title, she said: ‘When I was first arrested, I was in Evin prison in solitary confinement, and, for about five months, they didn’t allow me to have any books or newspapers. There was a TV in the cell I was in but it was off the entire time, and then at some point they decided to let me use the TV but it only had two channels.’
Addressing Sir Andy, she added: ‘Then I put it on, the first thing that was on was Wimbledon that day and that year, in 2016. They had no idea what they had given me because I was always a big fan of you, but also there I was in solitary confinement watching the match you actually won in the end. I can’t tell you how joyful it was, and I was ecstatic just to see you win.’
In response, Sir Andy said it was ‘by far the strangest, most incredible story I’ve been told’ about someone watching him play tennis.
The 35- year- old added: ‘ That makes me quite emotional hearing you speaking about that, so I appreciate you telling that to me.’
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe said she let her anger go after deciding it would ‘eat her up’.
She also recalled playing an Iranian version of charades in a hospital ward, explaining: ‘ My friends knew that on my list there had to be Andy Murray.
The people who were with me in that period, they knew you even though they’d probably never heard your name before – they knew who you were, which game you won and that was quite something for me – it felt like a connection, it felt like escape.
‘I was close to home all of a sudden and that was through sport.’
It came as Britain urged Iran to stop detaining dual nationals after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards arrested seven people with links to the UK over anti-government protests as they tried to leave the country on Sunday.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said yesterday: ‘ We’ve always said we will never accept our nationals... being used for diplomatic leverage and we urge the government of Iran to stop its practice of unfairly detaining British and other foreign nationals.’
‘I was close to home all of a sudden’