June 17, 2016
A lot of families hold birth-day parties in London’s Hyde Park, but this one was different because the guest of honor was thousands of miles away and connected to the party-goers by Skype.
The guest of honor was Gabriella Ratcliffe, who turned two Saturday. Her father, Richard Ratcliffe, 41, was in Hyde Park. Her mother, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, was in prison somewhere in Iran—no one knows where.
Nazanin had been allowed to call her parents in Tehran daily from her prison in Kerman. But the last call was last Sunday, June 5. The parents were told she had been moved to a new prison. But they haven’t been told where or why. As of Monday, they had not received a call from her in eight days.
Gabriella is in Tehran with her grandparents. Her father in London talks to her daily by Skype and says she is often bewildered by her mother’s absence.
But she was in gay spirits and enjoyed the birthday party. She giggled and blew kisses as she watched the party with lots of balloons, banners, teddy bear and multiple birthday cakes.
Asked what song she would like to hear sung, she immediately said, “Happy Birthday!” The relatives, neighbors and well-wishers gathered in Hyde Park quickly belted out a full-throated rendition of “Happy Birthday,” although the loudest voices were anything but in tune.
At the end of the party, everyone trundled across the street to the Iranian embassy, her father carrying a large birthday card signed by all the celebrants, which dad wanted the embassy to deliver to Gabriella. The embassy staff refused to open the door, apparently intimidated by dozens of party-goers and teddy bears. Someone speaking through the door told the father to leave the card on the front stoop and the staff would collect it later.
Dad had earlier invited the embassy staff to join the party in Hyde Park, but no one came.
The family has been told Nazanin is being held on a national security matter. But no specific charges have been cited despite her detention for more than 10 weeks. She was arrested April 3 as she was preparing to board a plane for London after a visit with her parents.
She has never been politically active. She works for the Thomson-Reuters Foundation, which trains journalists in the developing world. But the foundation does no work in Iran or with Iranians.
Some speculate she was arrested as part of a ploy to scare dual nationals from saying anything critical of the government. Others think hardliners opposed to President Rohani’s efforts to attract investment funds and talent from Iranian expatriates have started arresting dual nationals to spike those efforts. Iran has arrested six dual nationals in recent months—two Americans, one Canadian, two Britons and one French woman. Others insist Nazanin was detained as a hostage—as trade bait.
Ratcliffe was silent the first few weeks after his wife was arrested. But he subsequently decided to go public—and to do so in a very big way. He has shown a natural talent for publicity, such as with the Hyde Park birthday party. It helps, of course, that a toddler is at the center of the story. That tugs at heartstrings.
A petition calling for Nazanin’s release has been set up on change.org and passed the three-quarter million mark last week. That shows the scale of attention the detention has received in Britain. And that certainly doesn’t encourage any British firms to invest in Iran.
Chris Ratcliffe, Richard Ratcliffe’s brother, said the family was “desperately worried” about two-year-old Gabriella and her mother. He said of his conversations with the toddler: “Sometimes you speak to her at the end of a call and she just gets really upset and keeps asking for her mum, which is the most heartbreaking part. You just see how she’s the youngest victim of all this.”
He said his niece had been “delighted” during the Skype call, during which he used a selfie stick so that everyone at the birthday party could see her face.
Gabriella’s father said the toddler was “slightly confused” at first, then happy to be clapping along during the call.
Gabriella’s first cousin, Rosie Jones, 8, said, “We just want Gabriella to be here playing with us. Why can’t the people in Iran let her come back home. We miss her.”
