Saturday that she sends letters every day to her fiancé and his cellmate but has no idea if any of the mail gets through to them.
She said she is still haunted by images of the two men in their cramped jail cell and won’t have her life back until they have been released.
Sarah Shourd spoke at a gathering of friends and family in Oakland, California, where she appealed to Iranian officials to show compassion and release her fiancé, Shane Bauer, and their friend, Josh Fattal.
“I’m not free,” she said, as she choked up with tears. “My life will not resume until Shane and Josh are with me.”
Shourd, who was freed on Sept. 14, said again, “They’ve done nothing wrong and don’t deserve to be there for a second longer than I was.”
Shourd, 32, said she had no updates on efforts to release Fattal and Bauer and did not know how they were faring.
The US State Department has said a delegation from Oman, an ally of Iran and the United States who mediated Shourd’s release, has visited Iran to try to secure the freedom of Bauer and Fattal.
“I send them letters every day, I won’t know if they’ll receive them,” Shourd said. “I pray for a phone call, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get one, and I won’t know until the day they are released.”
About a dozen friends of Fattal, Shourd and Bauer were at the home of a friend of Shourd’s in Oakland writing letters to Fattal and Bauer. Shourd grew up in Los Angeles, but her mother, Nora, lives in Oakland.
Iran’s president has said Shourd was released because of her health issues. She had a breast lump and precancerous cervical cells, according to her mother. Shourd said she has been examined by doctors and does not have cancer, but has been told she needs to be monitored.
