“I see you”: The husband of imprisoned mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe talks to Index about why protest matters

Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife Nazanin is being held in an Iranian prison, talks to Rachael Jolley about why protests make a difference

CREDIT: Gareth Fuller/PA

“WE ARE ALWAYS trying to tell her story, and trying to tell [it] to get people to hear her story and to care,” said Richard Ratcliffe, who has been campaigning for more than 600 days to have his wife released from an Iranian jail.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a joint British/ Iranian citizen, was visiting her parents with her 22-month-old daughter, Gabriella, when she was stopped at the airport and accused of “plotting to topple the Iranian regime”, before being imprisoned.

During a busy day, like so many, talking to the world’s press, Ratcliffe tells Index that there is significant value in people around the world taking part in protests to highlight both Nazanin’s imprisonment and calls for her release.

“It’s a way of bearing witness to her story and acknowledging her story, and I think that part is profoundly important,” he said.

While others may question the impact of protests far away from where she is being held, Ratcliffe is very definite about why they should happen. It’s about “the sense that people care and that she is not forgotten”, he said.

He explains that, in the early months of his wife’s imprisonment, it was difficult to get in touch with her (for part of the time she was held in solitary confinement). But in the last few months it has become possible to talk – and for her to get more visits. “It always lets Nazanin know that she is cared for,” he said.

He says that it is impossible to know how much pressure is being applied on the Iranian or British governments by a demonstration or a protest.

“You never know how these things ripple through. You never know when it is going to get lots of attention or lots of people.”

Some protests have been held by just a handful of people, but they remain important. For example, photographs from a very small candlelit vigil, attended by his mum and brother, have appeared in many newspapers.

“It’s always been important for me to say ‘I’m not going to go quiet’,” he said.

“Part of the process is trying to make things uncomfortable for the authorities.”

He describes the challenges that every day brings and how any kind of support helps him to keep going.

“That kind of empathy that people share – it’s just really ‘I see you’ and ‘I stand with you’. That is important,” he said. “And when I’m feeling more fragile it’s the ‘I see you’ that picks us up.

“It is an outrage what they have done.