Mother's Day for Nazanin

Yesterday morning, I attended a peaceful ceremony outside the Iranian Embassy in central London. As yesterday was Mothering Sunday in the UK, Amnesty International, together with Richard Ratcliffe, had organised the event to mark the third Mother's Day that his wife, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, has spent in prison in Iran. As Richard said: “We’ve come to deliver her a Mother’s Day card, because obviously we can’t do that in person, and to deliver 155 bunches of flowers, one for each week she has been held".
Now, as a number of people, including my colleague, Rednev, have noted, I am not a great fan of the regime in Iran. I am only too knowledgeable of the human rights abuses perpetrated by this theocracy. George Galloway's favourite state has an appalling human rights record, ample testimony to which has been collated both by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Anyone doubting this should read both these linked reports in full.

Richard Ratcliffe looks the picture of determination in the above photograph, standing in the doorway of the Iranian Embassy. If you looked a more closely at his face, however, the marks of strain were only too visible. He has not seen his wife and daughter for three years, and the suffering he must have gone through is unimaginable to most of us. He can communicate with Nazanin by phone at infrequent intervals, as with his daughter, Gabriella.  Gabriella was 22 months old when Nazanin was arrested at the airport in Tehran, waiting to fly back to the UK, on April 3, 2016. She is now four years old, and in the care of her maternal grandparents. Understandably, Gabriella now speaks no English. Nazanin herself has endured agonies of confinement, and fears have been raised about her mental health, especially since the Iranian prison authorities released her for a long weekend, and then peremptorily ordered her back to jail.

Although anyone outside Iran can see that Nazanin is being held on trumped-up charges, it's worth looking back at why she was arrested, the "charges" against her, and British Government intervention. The BBC says:
 "Iranian authorities allege Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was plotting to topple the government in Tehran - but no official charges have been made public. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said she was visiting Iran leading a "foreign-linked hostile network".

Further details can be found elsewhere, but it is difficult to see how a young mum and daughter can possibly be a threat to the organised paranoid spy state of Iran. If Nazanin was such a threat, why was she not banned from entry or arrested at the airport upon arrival? 

As we know, international pressure and the granting of diplomatic status to Nazanin by the British Government has not resulted in the Iranians releasing her and Gabriella, which begs the question: why are they really being held? Suggestions have been made that the Iranians are holding them hostage in order to recoup money owed by the British Government over the purchase of tanks ordered by the Shah, but not delivered. The tanks were paid for, and the Iranians want the money back. It seems rather a spiteful measure to detain an innocent woman and her child, but there may be something in this suggestion. If we remember, the Iranians have done this sort of thing before, during the 1979 US hostage crisis. The US hostages held during this 444 day crisis were finally released after the US Government unfroze Iranian financial assets, which may point to a financial factor in Nazanin's case.

As for our government, diplomatic efforts have been made to obtain Nazanin's release. Jeremy Hunt, our new Foreign Secretary, has said that he would do everything to bring it about. Unfortunately, remarks by his predecessor, Boris Johnson, have probably made Nazanin's situation worse. As the BBC says:

 "In November 2017 then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson faced criticism for suggesting Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was training journalists".

Boris later apologised for his gaffe and phoned Iran to retract his words, but, four days after he put his foot in his mouth, Wikipedia comments: 
"...Zaghari-Ratcliffe was returned to court in Iran where the Foreign Secretary's statement was cited as evidence against her".

Standing among the press and protesters yesterday, I began talking to a couple about Richard and Nazanin and what they were going through, only to discover that these two people were Richard Ratcliffe's parents, John and Barbara, pictured above. It came as quite a surprise to find myself talking to people intimately involved in a situation that I knew of only through the mass media. It was a pleasure and an honour to meet them, and they told me a number of details about how Nazanin's incarceration had affected their family life. I must be circumspect here in what I write; a number of people warned me that it was by no means impossible that the Iranian authorities would be reading this blog item. As we saw with Blundering Boris, the Iranians are adept at using unguarded statements as propaganda. Still, I was moved to learn of how, at family gatherings, John and Barbara's granddaughter, Gabriella, was able to speak on the phone to her uncles, aunties and cousins in the UK. 

I was very interested to learn that Richard, John and Barbara had applied for visas to visit Iran, but had all been turned down. Besides this, it appears that John is considered by the Iranian authorities to be a spy. If anything points to the absurd nature of Iranian governmental paranoia, it's that charge. If John was a spy, the Iranians wouldn't know - instead of catching true spies, they have to frame innocent people, such as Nazanin.. Besides which - at the age of 69, John is too old for MI6 and would have retired by now. 

At the close of the ceremony, which saw a Mother's Day card for Nazanin being delivered to the Embassy and the 155 bunches of flowers laid on the entrance steps (I laid one), Richard Ratcliffe thanked us all for coming and urged continuing support for the struggle to release his wife and daughter. His parents told me how much the whole family valued the worldwide support they received. They thanked me for coming, which means a lot; it made me feel I'd done something worthwhile (which it was). I can only pledge my continuing support for the Ratcliffe family, and look forward to the day when they can all be reunited. We must not give up on the struggle; we must not abandon hope. Anyone wishing to help, please click on THIS LINK.