Generations united: in conversation with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
When South Hampstead Senior School announced its latest "Speaker Series" guest, tickets promptly sold out
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe never looked for fame, nor wanted to draw the spotlight to herself, but geopolitical conflicts irrevocably changed the course of her life. Luckily she survived the six year imprisonment in her country of birth, Iran, and since returning to the UK and being reunited with her stoic & loving husband Richard and daughter Gabriella, she has tirelessly, eloquently & passionately shared her story and continues to campaign for those unjustly imprisoned.
South Hampstead Senior School for Girls, which alumnus include late actress Dame Angela Lansbury, Dame barrister Professor Carolyn Hamilton OBE, writer Naomi Ishiguro & pianist Joanna MacGregor OBE, has a reputation for educating strong-willed and confident young women, and as Nazanin is a local resident, inviting her to be a guest speaker, talking to Headmistress Mrs Paul, made perfect sense. Local community, including former local Labour MP Tulip Siddiq, not only took Nazanin’s plight to heart, it was united in their support and by initiatives to help free Nazanin and return her to the country that has been her home for many years.
“Love is a verb”
Born in late 1970s, just before the revolution, Nazanin experienced the unsettling effect of war as a child and that impacted her and transformed the way she looks at life. She was a naughty child, but had an interesting experience at school, when lots of new things were tried and experimented with. Nazanin studied English literature, taught English language and worked as a charity project manager for WHO and UN in Iran, but when she won a scholarship to go to the UK and study English and history, there was no doubt in her mind that she wanted to do it. Shortly after coming to the UK, she serendipitously met Richard and they got married in 2009. So far, an interesting, but not particularly dramatic story.
Richard’s and Nazanin’s daughter Gabriella was born in 2014 and when she was just over 20 months old, Nazanin took her to her homeland to meet family and celebrate Nowruz. However when Nazanin and Gabriella were planning to return to London, Nazanin was detained and arrested at the Tehran airport. Not fully understanding what was going on, Nazanin initially thought that a mistake was made - she was taken to another city, close to a border, where a lot of prisoners were detained and held on drug charges. After that Nazanin was placed into solitary confinement - an experience not for the faint-hearted either. All this time Nazanin waited and hoped that someone would utter “we are sorry, we made a mistake” and she would be released. She also kept thinking that ‘no government in the world would do this to a mother of a 22-month old child - but I was wrong”, Nazanin added. Perception of time changes in solitary confinement according to Nazanin and even now, months after her return to the UK, she has a problem with making plans or agreeing to make diarised commitments for weeks on months ahead…not easy, when your daughter is at school and has multiple things that she wants to do, attend - with her mother in charge of organising a schedule & playdates.
When Nazanin was transferred to the general ward in prison, there was TV, newspapers, library - with books by Russian authors like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, “War & Peace”, “Anna Karenina” and “Idiot” were the ones than Nazanin recollected well, however all the books were in Farsi, as there was no extra staff in prison to check the content of the books for appropriateness and books that Richard or friends sent to Nazanin in English weren’t allowed through. With money donated to prison, a new oven was bought and Nazanin has written very movingly in May’s issue of Harper’s Bazaar about the healing that sewing, cooking and sharing common experiences with other female prisoners brought her. An article, called “Stitched Back Together” can be read here.
Nazanin was resolved to fight, with both her and her husband going on hunger strike, without knowing what the other one was doing. I actually remember seeing Richard sitting, looking devastatingly sad, outside Iranian Embassy in London - his dedication to his wife was & is remarkable, setting up the bar for husbands around the world undoubtedly VERY high. Even though he was ‘advised’ not to rock the boat, he spoke out bravely to anyone who would listen about his wife’s plight - there aren’t many men like Richard.
Three UK PMs and five Foreign Ministers later, Nazanin came home - and she said that even though Liz Truss was the last in that chain of politicians, she will forever be grateful for her release and safe return to the UK. It was without a doubt Nazanin’s faith that helped her during the hardest time, but without her daughter and hope her experience in prison would have been very different. She underwent a mental journey in prison, as well as being unwell, but observing this remarkable woman during her talk - determined, strong, unbroken, yet kind and smiling, attentive to the questions Mrs Paul was asking her and later listening and responding to the initial questions of two Six Formers, I couldn’t sit and smile in admiration and respect I felt for the beautiful and passionate woman, who sat confidently, mercifully unbroken, in the chair on the stage. She listened attentively to each question - initially asked by school’s headmistress, for who it was the first Speaker Series in her role, then to two Six Formers whose questions not only showed their own depth and maturity, but also reassured those who were parents in the audience, that the next generation is kind, thoughtful and intelligent when it comes to vocalising their thoughts and posing questions to Nazanin - a somewhat daunting task, considering the international scale of Nazanin’s fame.
When speaking about her daughter, Nazanin’s features softened, as she said that Gabriella was her source of joy and motivation in the darkest of times. She was the youngest of children among the imprisoned mothers and was allowed to visit Nazanin - with Nazanin cherishing every minute spent with her daughter, even considering where they were meeting - a prison. An unsettling and scary experience for any child, yet Gabriella managed to be cheeky, determined and charming, convincing the guards to allow such things as coffee - normally not allowed - to be given to her mother. Can you imagine the determination and strength of that girl, aged just three years old at the time? Nazanin called her “a fierce charmer’ at some stage, causing the audience to collectively chuckle - she was supposed to be in the audience, alongside her father, but was unwell on the day and unable to attend.
But Nazanin remained a prisoner and Gabriella was getting bigger, starting to forget English and not being able to be with her father - and soon she would have to go to school. All things considered Nazanin and Richard made the decision for Gabriella to go back to London - not doubting for a single moment that it was the right decision, never-the-less for a week after Gabriella’s departure Nazanin felt like she was in a blurry daze, questioning herself after having sent her only ray of sunshine further away and depriving herself from something so precious and vital. That’s what a deeply loving mother does - placing her child’s interests above her own…
Prison days merged into weeks, which merged into months, but Nazanin clung to hope and drew comfort from faith and diversity of women who were imprisoned alongside her - coming from all backgrounds. Every single woman reduced to zero by intimidation and suppression, no longer a name, just a prison number, with so many things - calls, visits - rationed. Yet remarkable friendships formed and flourished, giving women opportunities to speak and be heard, unlike when they had their time in court - where they weren’t even talked to, men not willing to hear women or give them the right to speak….
Nazanin loves books with a passion and reading helped her to travel in her mind, but she smiled recollecting that one of the female prisoners had a set of works by Proust, but with the heightened sense of possessiveness in prison, she was reluctant to share hers - and now Nazanin is unlikely to find the time to read the full works of Proust. On the subject of books, Nazanin mentioned that she and Richard wrote a book together, “A Yard of Sky”, each sharing their recollections of years that they were separated by borders and prison guards, and it is scheduled to be published in October.
It was also interesting to hear Nazanin talk about Boris Johnson and his worldly blunders that not only were controversial, but extended her time in prison. Upon her return to the UK she had a chance to speak to him and while her friends were keen to hear whether he apologised - don’t think he did - what mattered the most to Nazanin was to look him in the eye and tell him exactly what effect his gaffs and irresponsible wording actually had on her life and imprisonment. His apology - even if it was forthcoming - ‘wasn’t going to change anything’, said Nazanin. He also pretended not to know that she was made to sign a false confession in the airport, before she was allowed to board the plane and leave the country where she was born and raised….
It took Gabriella almost a year to trust that mum wasn’t going away and it will take even longer for Nazanin and her family to heal - something I wished her, to heal internally from all the trauma that she has lived through and experienced - as we shook each other’s hands. She answered a multitude of questions in the time that was allocated for the talk and afterwards, with a big, sincere smile, patiently answered questions that members of the audience queued up to ask her. Her eyes curious, alive and warm, expressing gratitude for kindness and thoughtful questions and comments. My son asked Nazanin about the possibility of returning to Iran, where her elderly parents live. She was very kind to answer him and agreed to have a picture taken with him. A memory my son and I cherish - a beautiful, resilient woman who faced her worst, unexpected fears and inspired such unanimous support from people from even the most remote corners of the world. And after all this suffering, pain and fear, I think it is telling that Gabriella proudly celebrates her mother’s roots, culture, language and love of food that are as much a part of her incredible mother, as they are of her, with another being British, taking after her father, who refused to give up on the woman he loved and married - and fought fearlessly and tirelessly to be reunited with. A remarkable story of our times that gives hope that not all is lost in the world that is increasingly divided by conflicts and tension between the nations.