Today marks yet another anniversary that all of us campaigning for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe hoped we’d never reach – three years since she was arrested.
That’s three full years spent in prison. Away from her family, including her young daughter Gabriella. Away from her friends, away from her charity work, away from her normal life.
Arrested on a regular holiday to visit her parents in 2016, Nazanin’s last three years have included months in solitary confinement, being denied a lawyer until just three days before her deeply unfair trial, and repeated struggles to access medical treatment for her deteriorating health.
Sad to say, the campaign for Nazanin’s release has already seen other milestones come and go, other anniversaries marking her arrest, her 1,000 day in jail (last December) and her 40 birthday.
This past Sunday, Amnesty campaigners – together with Nazanin’s husband Richard Ratcliffe and the wider family – gathered at the Iranian Embassy in central London to mark Mother’s Day. We brought 155 bunches of flowers – the number of weeks Nazanin has been in detention. For many people, Mother’s Day is about giving flowers to beloved mothers. In Iran, there is also a tradition of bringing flowers to prisoners being released from prison.
Laying flowers at the door of the Iranian Embassy is typical of the tireless campaigning that Richard has led. As he said on the embassy steps at the weekend, it’s important to find creative ways to keep the campaign in the public eye. Paradoxically, this can involve humour and even “something beautiful in what is a dark time”.
Over the last three years, the Free Nazanin campaign has left painted stones outside the Foreign Office (making the point that no stone should be left unturned in the fight for Nazanin’s release), organised high-profile comedy events, and has encouraged supporters to share haikus on the theme of home across social media. This is happening today - see #haikusforhome.
Richard says Nazanin “has been lifted up” by reports of all the campaigning back home.
Meanwhile, from various things Richard has said, it’s clear the Iranian authorities have spent a considerable amount of time trying – in vain – to drive a wedge between Richard and his wife. After we laid flowers at the embassy on Sunday the Iranian Ambassador accused Richard of being in some kind of “coalition” with Amnesty – a strange thing to say. Since when did a human rights campaign in support of a wrongly-jailed person not involve coalitions of these kinds?
In fact, hundreds of thousands of people, across the UK and the world, are in this coalition. In a coalition of solidarity with Nazanin and with her husband.
As the campaign enters its fourth year, her case is now being treated as a formal, legal dispute between Britain and Iran after the Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt granted “diplomatic protection” status to Nazanin last month. The Foreign Office is now awaiting a response from the Iranian Government.
At Amnesty we continue to urge the UK Government to work at all levels to secure Nazanin’s release.
This should be the last anniversary marking Nazanin’s detention.