January 10, 2020
daughter, Gabriella, hit the high notes as they sing
Christmas carols outside #10 Downing Street.
The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has called on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, widely known as Bojo, to “take responsibility” and help get her home after almost four years imprisoned in Iran.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in April 2016 and sentenced to five years in jail for spying, an exceedingly modest punishment for a real spy.
Her husband, Richard, 44, and their five-year-old daughter, Gabriella, were joined by about 40 people outside 10 Downing Street just before Christmas to sing carols as part of the campaign calling for Nazanin’s release.
Those taking part presented a giant Christmas card addressed to Johnson and filled with messages urging him to take action.
Ratcliffe, who has grown quite peeved with Johnson, said, “The message is for you to stand by the promise you made me, that you would leave no stone unturned. Please take responsibility for Nazanin’s case and do what you can to get her and others home.”
Speaking about his daughter, who recently returned to the UK after three and a half years in Iran, Ratcliffe said: “She misses her mum; she misses her granny. We have had a number of nights where she has cried herself to sleep. But luckily she has had a teddy bear her mummy had given her, and granny had given her, and kept one under each arm. It hasn’t been easy for her.”
Ratcliffe said, “Gabriella said that going to Evin prison to visit her mother sometimes ‘gave her a washing machine in her tummy.’ She would linger in the visiting room, going back again and again for extra kisses. Even now she remains sensitive to abandonment, and hates saying goodbyes.
“She said: ‘Mummy, prison is a nasty place. It keeps you away from me’,” Ratcliffe told the Sunday Times.
Before she left Iran, Gabriella gave her mother a small Paddington Bear toy so that “he can sleep next to you, because I cannot.”
Ratcliffe said, “When Nazanin was first taken, no visits were allowed. Gabriella didn’t sleep much those first weeks, calling out for Nazanin each night, going to the door daily to look for her mum, distractible only by watching Peppa Pig.
“Visits became an island of togetherness, with Gabriella sitting on Nazanin’s lap, sharing stories and games. She was an exuberance of doing things — focused on making origami animals, or tales of dollies and parks.
“Long before she had words, she had pictures. Initially, Nazanin drew the pictures, Gabriella did the coloring. First, pictures of toys, increasingly drawings of her and Nazanin. It was a partnership: ‘Mummy, you choose how you want me to color your shoes, and I will do it for you’.”
Gabriella is now relearning English, having spoken mostly Persian during her time in Iran. She is expected to start school next fall, which is why she returned to Britain from Iran.