May 13, 2016
The Islamic Republic has arrested yet another dual national, this one a British-Iranian woman who was arrested at Imam Khomeini Airport and had her infant daughter taken away from her.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, is a charity worker, but her organization does not work in Iran. She was simply visiting her family when she was arrested April 3.
Her 22-month-old daughter, Gabriella, is being cared for by her grandparents in Tehran and the girl is able to speak with her father daily by Skype.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, 41, went public Monday about his wife’s arrest despite opposition from the British government.
He said he is not aware of any charges being filed against her, although Iranian officials contacted his father-in-law last week to say the she is being investigation on national security issues.
Although she was arrested at Imam Khomeini airport, she has since been moved to a prison in Kerman, which is not a normal procedure.
The passport of her daughter, who has only British citizenship, was confiscated, so she cannot leave Iran.
The family in Tehran said Mrs. Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been ordered to sign “a confession” under pressure.
Mr. Ratcliffe said his wife’s family in Iran heard nothing after her arrest for three days, when she was allowed to phone and tell them she was safe.
They were told she would be released within a couple of days, he said, but heard nothing, later learning she had been transferred to Kerman.
On Monday, after the husband spoke out and the news of a mother being separated from her toddler was flashed around the world, her parents were telephoned by the authorities and invited to visit the imprisoned woman.
“They received a phone call with a promise for a visit tomorrow [Wednesday],” said her British husband. “So they have travelled down to Kerman today [Tuesday]. There is no guarantee the visit will happen though.”
On earlier occasions, Mrs Ratcliffe was allowed to speak by phone to her parents in Tehran – but not to her husband in Britain.
Mr. Ratcliffe said: “She was on holiday. She is a British charity worker. She works for an organization [the Thomson Reuters Foundation] that doesn’t do anything in Iran. She has been to Iran four times in the past two years without any problems.”
He said he has not had any direct contact from the Iranian authorities, but two weeks after his wife’s arrest they called her father to confirm they had detained her. Officials contacted him again last week to explain it was an issue of national security.
Ratcliffe, who is an accountant, said he speaks with his daughter every day via Skype. “She is clearly struggling and adapting and waking up in the middle of the night screaming and looking for mummy and looking for daddy, but she is also playing with her cousins and she is safe.”
The Red Cross has not been allowed to have any contact with her and she has not been permitted access to a lawyer, her family said.
Mrs. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was born in Tehran and studied English literature in college. She moved to Britain in September 2007 to study for a masters in communications management. She met her future husband at the university and they were married two years later.
She is the third dual national arrested in Tehran since the nuclear agreement took effect in January. The others still in jail are Nazak Afshar, 58, and Baquer Namazi, 80. Afshar is a French-Iranian woman who worked for the French embassy in Tehran until being arrested after the 2009 elections. She subsequently moved to France and works there for the French Foreign Ministry. She had returned to Iran to visit an ailing parent. Namazi is the father of Siamak Namazi, who was arrested last year and is still in prison. Father and son are both Iranian-Americans.
