a fateful historical mark Monday—their 444th day in captivity, equaling the detention of the 52 American hostages in 1979-81.
Only for Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 28, there was no trip home, just a 445th day in captivity.
The mothers of the hikers got to meet the presidents of both Iran and the United States last month. They met President Ahmadi-nejad while he was in New York for the UN General Assembly session.
About a week later, they went into the Oval Office for a 10-minute session with President Obama. Laura Fattal said Obama’s first words were, “I know this is my responsibility, to gain their release.”
She told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “He offered that. He didn’t wait for us to say something.”
Fattal recalled that Obama also said, “”Michelle and I, as parents, also feel and know these kids should come home and how hard it must be for the families.”
Fattal said the mothers’ eyes were glistening.
The 444 days were long. But still they are barely half the 29 months that Reza Taqavi was detained at Evin by the Iranian government before he was freed this week and allowed to return home to California.
For Laura Fattal, each day begins the same. She rises to scan the papers and websites for any news from Iran, writes another letter to Josh, sent through the Swiss embassy in Tehran, and waits for a reply—which does not come.