Nowruz for Nazanin

Family members, friends and supporters of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe gathered in Cardiff on March 19 to mark Nowruz and show solidarity for the Iranian-UK national who has been held in an Iranian jail for over a year. 

The event began with a performance by three local choirs, who sang "Do you hear the People Sing?" from the musical Les Miserables.

"Nowruz is a very important time to Nazanin,” said Rebecca Jones, Nazanin's sister-in-law, who helped organize the event — at once a celebration of the coming of spring, a family gathering and an appeal for UK authorities to do more to bring about Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release. “It’s a time of coming together with friends and family and reflection, as the new year is welcomed in.  It is the reason why Nazanin left us a year ago to go to Iran with Gabriella.”

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was due to fly home from visiting family in Iran when Revolutionary Guards arrested her on April 3, 2016. Her two-year-old daughter Gabriella, who holds a UK passport, was with her at the time of her arrest. Gabriella is now staying with Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s parents in Tehran. 

Judge Abolghasem Salavati handed down a five-year prison sentence on September 6, 2016. The official charges against her remain secret.

More than 100 people attended the Cardiff event, many traveling from London and further afield. In addition to music, the group read passages about the significance of Nowruz, and parts of a letter Zaghari-Ratfcliffe had recently written to her husband, Richard. After the readings, the crowd planted 30 hyacinths to celebrate Nowruz for Nazanin and Gabriella. “The hyacinths will remain in the garden for spring and we hope Nazanin will be out to view them soon,” said Rebecca Jones.

“This Nowruz we come together as Nazanin, Richard and Gabriella cannot,” Jones said. said. “We celebrate as a family with spring hope for Nazanin and Gabriella, planting hyacinths as a symbol of the new year and the hope this offers,” said Rebecca Jones. “Never has it been more important for Nazanin to wash away the old year with all its injustices and cruelty and welcome in the new year, with its hope of freedom and reunions.”

Jones said the letter read out from her sister-in-law was particularly powerful. “Do you remember the time that I was proud of my country and used to tell your family and friends about every little detail?” Nazanin wrote to Richard. “I am still proud of its civilization and culture, but I'm not too sure that after all the pain and suffering, when I leave it, whether I will ever return or not.

“Do you remember that I used to insist on going to Iran each year to spend Nowruz?” the letter continues. “I will never ask you that again. This isn't what I was trying to teach about my country to you and your family.”

Richard Ratcliffe said prison guards had recently told his wife that he would be able to speak with him prior to the Nowruz holiday, but then refused to allow the call to take place. It has now been over a month since was last allowed to speak to her husband. 

Family and supporters have become increasingly worried about Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s health. On March 5, she collapsed while waiting for a hospital appointment. Speaking about her condition, Richard Ratcliffe said medical professionals had advised that she be admitted to hospital for urgent treatment. “The guard said they did not have a court order authorizing this so she was taken out of hospital and back to Evin prison again,” he said. 

According to the family, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was able to see her daughter Gabriella last week, and, with other mothers in the prison and some of their children, painted eggs to mark the beginning of spring. In her recent letter to her husband, she expressed her overwhelming sadness that their daughter was not able to be with either of her parents, since Richard Ratcliffe remains in the UK trying to secure his wife’s release. “The most painful part of this whole affair is that neither of us have witnessed our daughter grow up. Neither of us,” she wrote. “The country we were once proud of has robbed us both of seeing the golden years of our daughter’s life.”