A father’s struggle as he waits for family’s return
20 months ago Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the wife of Richard Ratcliffe, left their West Hampstead home with daughter Gabriella to visit her family in Iran. She is now in jail, accused of plotting to bring down the regime. Georgina Stubbs spoke to Richard
APUSHCHAIR sits folded by the front door and there are a child’s paintings stuck proudly to the kitchen cupboards – this looks like any home busy with daily family life.
But it has been 20 months since the daughter and wife of Richard Ratcliffe walked through the front door of their West Hampstead home.
It was in April 2016 that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested as she tried to leave Tehran with her little daughter, Gabriella, following a trip to see family in Iran.
The 38-year-old dual-national charity worker was accused of plotting to topple the regime, which she denies, and was later sentenced to five years in prison.
Mr Ratcliffe, who longs for the return of the “bustle of normal life”, now only interacts with his wife over the phone twice a week and has a relationship with his daughter through Skype.
Speaking to the Press Association, and asked how he is coping without his family, Mr Ratcliffe said at the moment it was a “day-to-day” process for him.
He said the one memory which got his wife through eight months of solitary confinement was of her sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea, while he played and danced with their daughter.
“I probably don’t focus so precisely on that moment,” he said, when pressed on what it would be like to have them back home.
“But having them home and having the toys all moved around again, tidying them up and treading on Lego – all those kind of things that are just the bustle of normal life, rather than an empty house that is staying in the same way it was.”
Gabriella’s room, complete with a cot, a character cardigan hanging on the door and a pile of nappies sitting on a changing table, looks as though she may have only been there the day before.
Just like any other family’s front room, there are piles of toys and stacks of books, plus many family pictures in frames on shelves.
Mr Ratcliffe, whose sister, Rebcca Jones, is a GP living in Cardiff, said there was a way in which he was in “temporary living”, and that he has not changed things around because he felt it was important for their home to be like it was when his wife returns.
His daughter, who is now three, has been living with her grandparents in Tehran since her mother’s arrest.
Mr Ratcliffe said it has been 20 months since he saw his daughter face to face – which is roughly half her life.
To begin with he said she “desperately missed” her parents, but has now “adapted to the new environment”.
“Inevitably, as her English faded and she learnt Farsi, our relationship has been restrained,” he said, when asked how the situation had affected them.
“Yesterday I tried to call, but she explained that ‘Daddy I am watching cartoons’ and so could I call her later – so she has a good sense of priorities,” he said with a chuckle.
“Also, one of the things Nazanin does with her is, she talks about me – it is going to be Christmas soon, that they will see me and there will be presents.
“Often Nazanin will draw pictures with her in prison – the last one they drew a big picture of our life in London.”
Forced to simply chat with his daughter over Skype, as he was not issued a visa to visit, he said through this they are able to “cuddle” and share dollies’ tea parties.
He said she will often ask about her bedroom, the toys she has and that she likes looking at her old bed.
“There are points where I have realised that she has grown up, and of course that is true in a normal context, that you suddenly realise your children are interested in different things from before,” he said.
“But, yeah, there are points where it is clear I struggle to understand what is happening in her life, because I struggle to talk to her.”
With Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe telling her husband a “number of times” that she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, he said she wanted the injustice to end so she could go back to normal life.
Mr Ratcliffe said that her first few weeks in Kerman prison were the hardest for his wife, and that she would not talk about what happened there.
“What I see are the echoes and the consequences – lumps in her breasts and not being able to walk at points, and not being able to stand up and carry things,” Mr Ratcliffe said.
Now she is in Evin prison, and he said her being back in the cells has made a world of difference, with some of her friends, including human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, being held there too.
He said there were some “amazing women” locked up with Nazanin, who is teaching English once a week.
Mr Ratcliffe said his wife would often ask over the phone whether she would be back home for Christmas – something the family had hoped would happen last year.
“Why did we choose Christmas?” he said.
“It is such a thing to look forward to, it is such a nice time having the family together, and of course, she is eligible for early release around there, (plus) it is her birthday as well.”
In the time since Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson mistakenly said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in Iran training journalists, the campaign to get her released has garnered a swell of attention.
“Now when I get on the train, people recognise me and wish me well. That is really important to me,” Mr Ratcliffe said.
“Now we are in a different place, yes, it is really stressful for me, it is very stressful for Nazanin, but hopefully it will lead us to a happy conclusion.”