Nazanin's Family Hopes for Freedom as One-Year Prison Anniversary Approaches

On Sunday, April 2, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe will mark 365 days in an Iranian prison.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family and supporters will come together in a north London park near Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s home on the eve of the anniversary to launch the yellow ribbon "One Day Tree" campaign. They will tie yellow ribbons to trees in the park, attaching messages from Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other female prisoners held in Evin Prison, as well as from supporters of the Free Nazanin campaign. 

The One Day Tree campaign urges people to post messages of what a prisoner might do on their first day of freedom on the #FreeNazanin petition page and website. 

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who holds dual UK-Iranian nationality, was preparing to fly back to the UK after an annual trip to visit her family in Iran when Revolutionary Guards agents arrested her on April 3, 2016. Her two-year-old daughter Gabriella, who was traveling with her, was put in the care of her grandparents. After months of uncertainty, Judge Abolghasem Salavati issued Zaghari-Ratcliffe a five-year prison sentence on September 6, 2016. The official charges against her remain undisclosed. 

The One Day Tree campaign will run for two weeks. Family and friends will compile the ideas of freedom in a book, which they will then take to Evin Prison, where Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been held for the majority of her incarceration, soon after Easter, which falls on April 16. The Free Nazanin campaign urges people to post photos of their ribbons and ideas on the Free Nazanin Facebook page.

While in prison, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s health has deteriorated, and doctors have repeatedly called for her to be admitted to a hospital, most recently on March 18. On March 5, she collapsed while waiting for a hospital appointment. She was finally allowed a medical consultation on March 18, where the consultant again recommended immediate admission. The prosecutor’s office has told the family that it is awaiting for a judge to approve hospital admission.

The Free Nazanin Campaign continues to raise awareness about the injustice of Zaghari-Ratcliffe is suffering, posting regular updates about her case and organizing events to call for her release, including a Nowruz event in Cardiff. “Yet the anniversary is a point to mark that this suffering will not define us,” says her husband, Richard Ratcliffe. “One day Nazanin’s and Gabriella’s ordeal will be over, one day our lives will begin again. And what defines us is what comes after – how we recover the maybes in life, how with the support of others we learn again to get beyond the anger, to be ready to walk cheerfully again.”

The April 1 campaign is in part inspired by Richard Rafcliffe’s memory of writer and teacher Brian Keenan’s release from captivity in Lebanon in 1990. “Those first words I now understand with quite different eyes,” he says, remembering Keenan’s words: “I’m going to visit every country in the world," Keenan said, "eat all the food of the world, drink all the drink of the world, and I hope make love to every woman in the world. Then I might get a good night’s sleep.”

The first of April is the twelfth day of Nowruz celebrations and coincides with the Islamic Republic of Iran day — a day when the Supreme Leader customarily orders the release of some prisoners. “Like a number of families, we stand hopeful that Sunday could also be our first day of celebration,” says Richard Ratcliffe and family. 

On April 2, Iranians will mark Nature Day, when they traditionally plant flowers and picnic with family. 

 “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 Zaghari-Ratcliffe wrote to her husband in a recent letter. “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.”