Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has spoken about her six years of imprisonment in Iran and her complex relationship with faith during and after her ordeal.
Speaking at an event in Salisbury Cathedral, Zaghari-Ratcliffe told of her arrest in Iran in 2016 as she was boarding a flight to return to Britain. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was separated from her then-22-month-old daughter, who was sent to live along with her parents.
At first she was convinced that it was simply a case of mistaken identity but Zaghari-Ratcliffe was charged and convicted of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, something she has at all times denied.
In 2017, she claims the judge overseeing her case confirmed that she was effectively a hostage getting used as a bargaining chip with the British government. Iran claimed that Britain owed it a debt after it bought 1,500 Chieftain tanks which were never delivered.
The order was placed before the 1979 Islamic revolution, at which point Britain refused to send the tanks.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was within the unique position of getting no power in any respect to influence her treatment in prison or her possibilities of release.
“What was frustrating was, no matter how good or how bad I used to be in prison, that was not going to affect my freedom. They were very, very clear that there was something they might want of the British government, and until [they got it], they’re not going to let me go,” she said, in response to Church Times.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe spoke of the anguish of being separated from her baby and of the “silent violence” of being placed in solitary confinement for nine months.
During her time in solitary, she relied on God and her faith.
“I used to be lonely and scared and unsure of what was going to occur. I had to seek out something to carry on to and faith was the closest thing I could find . . . Trying to read and to talk over with God, it did help me so much.”
Despite this, upon her release in 2022, Zaghari-Ratcliffe said her relationship with faith modified.
“We live in a really form of tousled world, with the world being, for my part, a foul place. Let’s put it that way,” she said.
“I’m questioning, and I feel all of us undergo a journey of . . . questioning the things which are happening. And I actually have parked the thought of my faith. I still imagine in love and humanity and helping other people, but from a unique perspective than . . . once I was in prison. But I feel it was my faith that truly saved me.”
