Don’t let Boris Johnson off the hook over innocent British woman jailed in Iran – Laura Waddell

Charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says goodbye to her daughter Gabriella, after the Iranian authorities said she must return to prison (Picture: The Free Nazanin campaign/PA Wire)Charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says goodbye to her daughter Gabriella, after the Iranian authorities said she must return to prison (Picture: The Free Nazanin campaign/PA Wire)
Charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says goodbye to her daughter Gabriella, after the Iranian authorities said she must return to prison (Picture: The Free Nazanin campaign/PA Wire)
Low expectations that the UK Government will be able to do anything about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s prison sentence in Iran are not helping, writes Laura Waddell.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been here before. Three days of respite from her imprisonment came in the autumn of 2018, when the British-Iranian dual citizen was allowed to leave prison and spend time with her family. But afterwards, her husband criticised the cruel conditions of the furlough, and Nazanin reported panic attacks on returning, regretting having taken the time out at all.

It’s difficult to imagine the agony in holding polar experiences simultaneously: the fleeting feeling of freedom, and knowledge it will soon again be over. Three days in such conditions must pass so quickly, each moment weighed by regulations and surveillance.

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Speculation of coronavirus in Iran’s jails after an outbreak across the country had been the unlikely harbringer of hope once more, when non-political prisoners were allowed leave to ease the overcrowded conditions inside. It was thought earlier in the week Nazanin may also be offered another temporary stay on the outside; but as time passed, this was put in doubt by unclear communications from the Iranian ambassador to the UK.

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It’s important to remember the family life left behind in the UK, and those who continue around the gap she left, shouldering swells of hope and despair in any change of circumstance. The young daughter who went on holiday with her parents and returned with only one of them, now old enough for school. Nazanin’s husband Richard, who matched her hunger strike and camped outside the Iranian embassy in London in protest.

Johnson’s blunder

The toll it must take on all close family members fighting for the release of their loved ones in similar circumstances. None of them can be said to be free while the situation continues, and each calender month passes. How exhausting must the constant striving for action and awareness be.

But with all this comes renewed national interest in the case, and a push for the UK Government to act to secure Nazanin’s permanent release and return.

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In an 2017 incident that should have damaged Boris Johnson more significantly, the then Foreign Secretary’s bungled attempts to comment on the situation saw his very own words used as evidence against her in court. She was not, as Johnson claimed, in the country teaching journalism.

But his statement lent credence to the National Guard’s charges of espionage against her. It was an incident demonstrating the very opposite of statesmanship, and a lack of basic grasp of the complexities of the UK-Iran relationship.

This was unforgiveable in a foreign secretary. It is even more concerning he has failed upwards and graduated to Prime Minister. When human lives are at stake, faltering and flustering has direct consequences, something the public are beginning to smell this week also in Johnson’s lack of leadership and direction around the coronavirus total creeping higher and question marks for contingency plans.

Greater interest in a hate figure

Johnson promised he would “leave no stone unturned” in efforts to free Nazanin. But from all we know about him by now, it’s difficult to imagine the PM taking action when he could instead avoid it; tensions with Iran haven’t lessened since his gaffe, and the UK ambassador to Iran was himself arrested and subsequently released in January of this year.

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Richard Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has received support from some MPs, continues to push for the UK Government to be “brave” while human rights groups such as Amnesty International have urged the public to add their support.

It is illuminating to consider the framing of this story and that of Shamima Begum, whose citizenship was revoked following her departure aged 15 to join Isil in Syria. There is no direct parallel between these two women’s stories: one pursued a terrorist sect, and the other committed no crime. But both are about how UK citizens are treated and how passionately the British public claim or reject them. While Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case has received significant media attention, it is often placed in the world news sections of serious outlets. It has not really captured the mainstream in the way that Begum’s story became a talking point across social media and radio phone-ins. Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s fate has not fanned public outcry in the way that a hate figure can. Bluntly, there is less interest in one woman in need of help as there is in punishing another.

People are not objects

There are differing opinions on the Begum case; some feel refusing citizenship, even of terrorists, is both counter-productive to the aim of reducing the lure of sects, and a barbaric bureaucratic limbo to leave any human being in. Many others are aghast at the very suggestion of repatriation. But the bit in everyone’s teeth when they talk about the dilemma is their idea of what UK citizenship is, whether informed by compassion, or xenophobia, or retribution.

And despite the individually supportive MPs, or the protesters who turned up to Downing Street on Nazanin’s Boxing Day birthday to sing carols, or the thousands of people who have signed petitions, there is less mass energy dedicated to supporting one British citizen than there was to spurning another. It is easier for our media and public discussion to set up a figure of fear, however justified, than it is to prop up one deserving support.

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As we witnessed during the depressing days of Brexit, there is no shortage of people wanting to reclaim, often nonsensically and erronously, what they see as ‘British’. Taking back control, taking this and that, taking from others, and on and on it goes. People are not objects, but is easier for Brits to vociferously reject one of their citizens than it is for them to loudly claim one.

It’s easy to give up hope, and to close the browser tab on the petitions, and to quickly move on when something terrible happens that feels far away from our own lives. But perhaps this low expectation that the Government will ever do anything lets them off the hook. Nazanin’s family will never give up hope. At the very least, we could share with them some of ours.

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