To kick off the first Senior Societies Talk of the academic year, our Senior Student, Aiyana, led a talk with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, to discuss her wrongful imprisonment in Iran. She spoke about prison life, how she kept her faith, and reuniting with her family after her release.
Born in Tehran in 1978, Nazanin moved to the UK in 2007 after receiving a scholarship to study a Masters degree at London Metropolitan University. Shortly after her arrival into the UK, she met her future husband, Richard, married and started working for the BBC Word Service Trust. In April 2016, she was arrested by the Iranian Government while visiting family in Iran with her young daughter who was 22 months old at the time.
During her talk, Nazanin discussed the emotional challenges she faced while imprisoned, mainly as a result of spending nine months in solitary confinement. Despite the unclear reasons for her arrest, her case gained international attraction when the then British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, made comments about the nature of her work in Iran, which were used against her in her trial. Nazanin described the immense toll this took on her family, especially when her daughter was released in 2019 and returned to her father in the UK to start school.
Nazanin also highlighted the key role that her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, played in campaigning for her freedom. From launching petitions in 2016, to going on hunger strikes in 2019 and 2021, Richard’s determination bought global awareness to her case, and succeeded in getting the British government to expand its efforts. She was released in 2022 after her husband’s efforts brought to light that his wife’s release was dependant on the interest of a £450 million debt that the UK has owed Iran since the 1970s.
Nazanin’s story, filled with resilience and hope, left our students with a message of never giving up and persevering, even in the smallest of situations.
During the Q and A session after the talk, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe said: “ I kept my faith whilst in solitary confinement by thinking of the family I have waiting for me outside. I usually enjoy bringing my daughter to these events as I believe it’s important for her to remember that what I went through is part of who we are now and although challenging, it has made me stronger.”
