A Shaft of Light in a Darkened World: Home from Iran

 

It would be a hard heart that did not rejoice at the news of the return of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori last Wednesday morning. It was deeply moving to watch how Nazanin's daughter, Gabriella, ran to her tearful mother's arms and to see the reunion of this family that has been so cruelly separated for the past six years. Richard Ratcliffe, Nazanin's husband, looked as if a ton of lead had been removed from his shoulders. He has campaigned tirelessly for his wife's release, and has been supported by human rights organisations and activists of all kinds, ranging from politicians and celebrities to ordinary individuals around the world - including me.

With all due respect to Anoosheh Ashoori, I have consistently joined in efforts to release Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. While her husband has campaigned magnificently to bring Nazanin home, one organisation that has consistently supported him is, of course, Amnesty International (AI). As an AI member, I attended a Mothers' Day vigil for Nazanin in March, 2019 - please see my post of that time by clicking the link. The photograph above was taken outside the Iranian Embassy on that day. Even back then, I thought that Richard's face was that of a man who was walking a long, hard road - and he still had three years to go. Since that time, he was able to welcome his daughter back to the UK, went on hunger strike in support of his wife, had his hopes for her release dashed on many occasions, but never gave up hope. For me, the three years passed since then have gone by quickly - for Richard, Nazanin and family they must have felt interminable.

On the day of the vigil in 2019, I was honoured to meet Richard's parents, John and Barbara, seen above. They told me of the heartache and anguish Nazanin's incarceration had caused the whole family. They also told me of the ridiculous accusations that the Iranian regime had levelled at John - that he was a spy. John was 69 at the time and too old for MI6. I will finish this section by wishing the whole of the reunited Ratcliffe family every happiness and a peaceful new life together.

But, of course, we can't leave it there. While it is good to write about the Ratcliffe reunion, it's worth reminding ourselves what Nazanin went through during her six years as a hostage and to bear in mind what other "political" prisoners of the Iranian regime are suffering. As we know, Nazanin was arrested before boarding a flight home to UK six years ago, and was held for a time in the establishment pictured above. It is the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, which welcomes English-speaking prisoners with a sign over the gate: "Evin House of Detention". Perhaps that is done to make English speakers feel more welcome.

It was hardly welcome for Naznin, or any other prisoner. Evin has an evil reputation for ill-treatment of female prisoners. Quite how Nazanin felt when being taken there is unimaginable; even senior Iranian politicians have acknowledged that female prisoners faced sexual abuse from guards. As Wikipedia says:

"Following the 2009 Iranian presidential election and subsequent protests, Iranian presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi said several protesters held behind bars have been savagely raped, according to a confidential letter to senior cleric and former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.[59] Karroubi said this was a "fragment" of the evidence he had and that if the denials did not stop, he would release even more".

The pressure on Nazanin appears (hopefully) to have been psychological and inflicted by female guards. They taunted her by saying that Richard's efforts to free her would lead to her being detained even longer. The BBC says here: 

"At the start of her imprisonment, Nazanin told doctors, when she was in solitary confinement with the lights always on, her interrogators taunted her that Richard was having affairs and that they had photographic evidence.One of her female guards used to talk loudly to her own child just outside Nazanin's cell. "It was unbearable," Nazanin said. "I dreaded her shifts as I knew she would do that to torture me."

After a period of healing, we may learn more about how Nazanin was treated in the Evin Prison, but we need to bear in mind that there are many other individuals held unjustly in Iran. I can only refer readers to the Amnesty International report  2020-21on Iran, even though it makes for grim reading. This extract may suffice: 

" Women, as well as ethnic and religious minorities, faced entrenched discrimination as well as violence. Enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment were committed with impunity on a widespread and systematic basis. Judicial corporal punishments amounting to torture, including floggings and amputations, were imposed. Fair trial rights were systematically violated".

I am sure that I speak for many when I say that I was flabbergasted at Boris Johnson's reaction to Nazanin's release. He told Sky News how delighted he was at her long-awaited freedom. He made no mention of his blunder in telling the Foreign Affairs Select Committee in 2017 that Nazanin had been teaching Iranians journalism - which led to her being taken back to court in Tehran. Tulip Siddique, MP for the Ratcliffe family, has written in the Observer, quoted here in The Guardian, that she and Richard Ratcliffe met with Boris soon after his blunder:

“This disastrous blunder meant Johnson was forced to meet us. Again, I raised my concerns about the debt, which were flatly denied by him,” she writes. “Incredibly, he asked if Richard had enjoyed his visit to Iran. Anyone who had read a newspaper article on the case was aware that Richard had been at home in the UK when his wife was arrested in Iran. To this day, I feel astonished by Johnson’s extremely poor grasp of his brief."

"The debt", of course, is the £400 million pounds that the UK government owed to Iran over tanks ordered by the Shah of Iran back in the 70s, but not delivered. Ms Siddque's article is scathing here, again quoted in the Guardian: 

"The MP writes about how successive prime ministers denied there was any link between the UK’s debt to Iran and Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release, despite the fact that her captors told her there was. It was only last year, after Liz Truss became foreign secretary, that the link was acknowledged, and debt accepted as “legitimate”."

In conclusion, while we can rejoice at the return of Anoosheh Ashoori and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to our shores, I feel a sense of foreboding for the future. While this debt had to be paid, legally, there is nothing to stop other regimes taking hostages as bargaining chips in future disputes. The only, limited, suggestion I have is that it might be a good idea for British nationals, dual citizens or otherwise, not to visit Iran. I certainly won't be going, after this article is published.

Stopping The War: Right On

 

On the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I wrote a song lyric condemning the invasion called "Bad News Breaking". For some unknown reason, it has proved impossible to publish as a separate page here, but it's not strictly relevant. What matters is the fact that I posted it on a Folk club's Facebook page. Most responses were favourable, and I even received an offer to set the lyric to music - an offer I accepted gratefully.

Interestingly, though, I drew one unfriendly response. The responder commented:

"This is not the black and white situation that the Western politicians/press like to paint it. No! It is a multi-coloured. multi-complex situation. For the sake of the planet, let Russia feel save from Western aggression. It's the Americans who are the real trouble makers..."

With images of the suffering of Ukrainian civilians appearing on the TV and hearing their harrowing stories, I reacted sharply to this by pointing out that it wasn't American troops who'd invaded Ukraine. The responder reacted with anger, but I didn't let myself get drawn in to a social media slanging match. Instead, I decided to look at the alternative view about the invasion, best expressed in the UK by the Stop the War Coalition (STWC). In their statement issued on 24th February, they condemn the invasion, but reserve their main criticisms for NATO, saying:

"The conflict is the product of thirty years of failed policies, including the expansion of NATO and US hegemony at the expense of other countries as well as major wars of aggression by the USA, Britain and other NATO powers which have undermined international law and the United Nations."
They call for the British government to curb the spread of NATO westward and work for a return to the Minsk-2 Agreement, Ted Galen Carpenter on the STWC website, again, says:

"Events during the past few months constituted the last chance to avoid a hot war in eastern Europe. Putin demanded that Nato provide guarantees on several security issues. Specifically, the Kremlin wanted binding assurances that the alliance would reduce the scope of its growing military presence in eastern Europe and would never offer membership to Ukraine. He backed up those demands with a massive military buildup on Ukraine’s borders."

Dissatisfied with NATO's response to his request, Putin launched the present invasion. Elsewhere on its website STWC point out that the USA and its allies, including Britain, have interfered militarily in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya, causing mayhem, instability and bloodshed on a scale that dwarfs the Russian invasion of Ukraine into insignificance. 

My own view is that while STWC might be right in saying that diplomacy and compromise is the way to end this conflict, that is a matter for posterity. Accurate though their analysis may be (or not), it does not help us with the need to protect the territorial integrity of Ukraine or the floods of refugees seeking to escape the war.

As we know, Putin justifies his criminal incursion into Ukraine by claiming he was seeking to liberate the Ukraine from neo-Nazis. There is one unit in the Ukrainian Army made up of right-wing extremists, and they lend a faint vestige of truth to Putin's claim. They are called the Azov Battalion or Regiment and have a ferocious combat reputation. Al-Jazeera comments:

"On Monday, Ukraine’s national guard tweeted a video showing Azov fighters coating their bullets in pig fat to be used allegedly against Muslim Chechens – allies of Russia – deployed in their country."

Some estimates put the number of avowed Nazis in this unit at about 20%. This would appear to give some credence to Putin's claim, but closer inspection proves this to be wrong. There are only about 900 Azov fighters and many of them are foreigners, come to fight the Russians. As the population of Ukraine is about 44 million, this is hardly significant, especially since President Zelenskyy is Jewish. The Azov battalion are an unpleasant bunch, no doubt, but Ukraine needs every fighter it can get.

Putin's claim of liberating Ukraine from Nazism rings somewhat hollow when we bear in mind that he has numerous friends on the Far Right in Europe, and around the world. Two such figures are Marine Le Pen of the French National Front and Matteo Salvini of the Italian Northern League. Both these individuals have enjoyed Putin's hospitality (and funding) in the past; Salvini used to wear a Putin T-shirt. They are now hastily revising their opinion of their erstwhile benefactor. Salvini says:

 “When someone attacks, it is clear that we must be on the side of the one that was attacked,” 

Presumably, he will now revise his opinion of Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia.

Not all far-righties have abandoned Putin. The Times of Israel says:

"Alice Weidel, head of Germany’s far-right AfD party, has denounced the “historical failure” of the West, accusing it of offering Ukraine a perspective of joining NATO rather than pushing for the country to be a neutral buffer nation between the alliance and Russia."

Eric Zemmour, another far-right candidate in France’s April presidential elections, opined that while “Putin is the guilty one, those responsible are in NATO which has not stopped expanding.” Zemmour could almost be speaking for Stop the War Coalition.

Another country where Putin has retained admirers is the USA. The young man in the picture above, Nick Fuentes, leader of the white nationalist America First Party, called for a round of applause for Putin at the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC), held days after the invasion began. As Sergio Olmos, in The Guardian comments:

"Devin Burghart, executive director of Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, said: “In the world of the white nationalists, you are seeing a lot of support for Putin, as expressed by the cheerleading at AFPAC over the weekend.”

Russia and, by association, Putin, is regarded favourably by the far Right in the USA, it seems. David Duke, a leading Ku Klux Klan member, was quoted as saying in 2004 that Russia was "key to white survival". Olmos again: " In 2017 Ann Coulter, a rightwing author and commentator, opined: “In 20 years, Russia will be the only country that is recognizably European.”

Putin's authoritarian style is admired by the US far right, as are his attacks on Russia's LGBTQ community. Most disturbing of all, though, was:

"Burghart says some extremist rightwing militias even see Ukraine as a potential scenario to discuss how to prepare for urban warfare and a future insurgency in the US itself. Instead of horror at the outbreak of brutal urban warfare, some US extremists are obsessed with the idea of a coming civil war in America.
“They see a societal collapse and need to prepare for an impending civil war, and their focus is on preparing for the battles of that here in the US,” Burgheart added.

I don't know what verdict History will pass on Vladimir Putin, but I can guess...