On Sunday, April 2, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe marked 365 days in prison.
On the eve of the anniversary of her arrest, her family and supporters joined at a north London park near Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s home to decorate a “One Day Tree” with messages of freedom and hope.
The group asked female inmates at Evin Prison, including Zaghari-Ratcliffe, what they would do on their first day of freedom, and asked others to imagine what their response would be in a similar situation. They then used yellow ribbons to tie the messages on a tree in Fortune Green, West Hampstead.
When asked about her dream of freedom, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe told her husband: “My fondest dream has always been to arrive at our home, you ask me if I want to have a cup of tea, then make me one. I just sit back and watch you two play. This is the image I had most when in solitary confinement.”
Human rights activist Narges Mohammadi expressed her desire to see her children: “The biggest pain for a mother is to be away from her children,” she wrote. “It’s nearly two years now that I haven’t seen my 10-year-old twins. They left Iran to Paris after I was arrested, to live with their father. And if I was free at this moment, I wouldn’t waste a minute to see them.”
A Campaign of Hope
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.
Richard Ratcliffe urged people to take part in the campaign, and to come together to celebrate his wife and hope for her quick release. Several local chapters of Amnesty International intend to take part.
“Rather than feel sad for us this anniversary – please lend us your enthusiasms, your ‘happy to be alive’ days, your ideas for the one days to come," Richard Ratcliffe said. " In the end, it will not be anger or sympathy we need, but renewal. One day it will come.”
Authorities arrested Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe at the airport on April 3, 2016 as she prepared to return to the United Kingdom after visiting her family in Tehran with her two-year-old daughter Gabriella. Gabriella is currently being looked after by family in Tehran. She is able to see her mother in prison on a regular basis.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s colleagues at Thomson Reuters Foundation also marked the one-year anniversary, gathering around her empty desk and holding tulips in solidarity. “It has been one year since Nazanin was arrested, separated from her daughter and subsequently sentenced to five years in jail on unknown charges,” said Monique Villa, the foundation’s CEO. “This unbearable situation has lasted way too long, and has caused Nazanin and her family unimaginable pain.”
Villa also spoke of concerns over Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s health, which has continued to deteriorate during her incarceration. Throughout her time in prison, Zaghari-Ratcliffe has spoken of her desolation and reported that she has suffered severe panic attacks. Family and supporters have expressed relief, however, that her health has remained stable over the last week.
“Iran was the country she loved," said Villa in a statement. "And she always spoke of returning to live there with her husband and children at some point in the future. She could never have imagined, of course, that she would soon be trapped there, in the most terrible circumstances, far from all she loves.”
The charges against Zaghari-Ratcliffe remain secret. Her family and colleagues have always emphasized her job as a charity worker was in no way related to Iran.
"Not once in her four years at the foundation did we hear her speak of Iranian politics," Villa's statement said.
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