PRECIOUS MOMENTS
In prison my memories of daughter Gabriela faded – now I love braiding her hair, says freed Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
NAZANIN Zaghari-Ratcliffe spoke movingly yesterday of how her memories of her daughter “faded” during six hellish years jailed in Iran.
The freed hostage, speaking for the first time since flying home last week, told of her struggle to recall touching moments with Gabriella, now eight.
4
4
But the elated mum is piecing together the family life that was shattered when she was locked up on ludicrous charges of conspiring to oust Iran’s ruthless Islamist regime.
Nazanin revealed how she began to rebuild their bond by braiding Gabriella’s hair.
They have also been snapped giggling while cooking pizza together.
The charity worker, 44, said: “I left my daughter when she wasn’t even two.
Read More on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
"Now she is eight years old and I am looking forward to spending time and getting to know them better.
"My memory faded as time went by but the most vivid I had was of Gabriella playing. But it did fade over time.”
At an emotional Westminster press conference Nazanin praised her “amazing, wonderful” husband Richard, 45, for his tireless campaigning and thanked Gabriella “for being very, very patient with Mummy to be coming home”.
She said with a laugh: “Gabriella has upgraded Mummy to be with her and Daddy has been downgraded, sadly! There is lots of catching up to do.
Most read in News
“I am enjoying getting to hold her and brush her hair and braid her hair. I was talking to Gabriella, and she said, ‘You're very famous, Mummy. You’re the most famous, then it’s me, then it’s Daddy.”
Nazanin drew laughs as she recounted a phone conversation with cheeky Gabriella when still being held in Iran.
The youngster told her, “Mummy, you do realise you are famous?” then added: “But you’re not gonna be famous for ever — maximum a week.”
Laughing, Nazanin said they were “bracing ourselves for a week of fame”.
In a more sombre moment, the mentally scarred former captive revealed how her ordeal "would always haunt” her.
She said: "There is no other way around it. It will be with me - it is never going to leave you alone.
"But I think at the moment I would rather just focus on the moments of coming back.
"I always felt like I am holding this black hole in my heart all these years, but I'm just going to leave that black hole on the plane.
"Over the past six years, it has been cruel, what happened to me but I’m not going to live for the rest of my life with a grudge".
Richard told how the family were still sorting out their new sleeping arrangements since being reunited.
He laughed: "We are still debating whether daddy is allowed in the same bed as Gabriella and Nazanin."
Laying bare the couple’s battle to adjust after years of stress and separation, Richard said they were having to take “baby steps” back to normal family life.
Gabriella has upgraded Mummy to be with her and Daddy has been downgraded, sadly! There is lots of catching up to do.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
But the devoted dad added: “We'll get there. I think we'll do this interview and then we will disappear off and heal a bit.”
Accountant Richard, from Hampstead, North London staged endless demonstrations, petitions, stunts and hunger strikes while campaigning for his wife’s release
His crusade began just two weeks after Nazanin’s arrest in April 2016 when he delivered a petition of 500,000 names to Downing Street when it was unclear why she had been held.
On the first anniversary of her detention, he was pictured tying yellow ribbons around a tree in Hampstead near their home in a symbolic plea for her safe return.
And he worked constantly behind the scenes, cajoling and encouraging top politicians to do more to free his wife - while begging cold-hearted Iranians directly for mercy.
But the sight of the desperate dad outside the Foreign Office in London on a 21-day hunger strike last October is believed to have finally moved ministers to act.
It was a pledge of millions in hard cash which finally delivered Nazanin safely home from the clutches of her heartless captors.
Richard said yesterday it was “nice to be retiring” from public life after his wife’s freedom dream finally came true.
Nazanin was arrested in 2016 after a holiday visit to Tehran with Gabriella and convicted of plotting to overthrow the government.
She endured mental torment and physical hardship in Iranian capital Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison for five years and served another year under house arrest.
The long-awaited release came after Britain agreed to settle a £400 million debt with Iran dating back more than 40 years.
Cruel rulers used her as a pawn as they haggled for the return of cash paid for 1,500 Chieftain tanks which Britain refused to deliver after Iran was seized by Islamists in 1979.
I always felt like I am holding this black hole in my heart all these years, but I'm just going to leave that black hole on the plane.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
Nazanin’s UK homecoming - and the ecstatic welcome she received from Gabriella - touched the nation’s heart when she arrived at RAF Brize Norton, Oxon last week.
The little girl struggled to recognise the beaming figure walking down the aircraft steps and was heard asking "is that mummy?”.
A moving video then recorded the little girl crying out “mummy!” as before running into beaming Nazanin’s arms.
The freed mum - wearing the yellow and blue of Ukraine yesterday in tribute to the invaded nation - spoke out at the Portcullis House parliamentary building in Westminster.
Her local MP Tulip Siddiq, who campaigned for her release for six years and chaired yesterday’s event said of their first meeting last week: “We hugged each other for ages.
“We were both quite tearful and it was quite emotional meeting her.
“She knew so much about me and I knew so much about her and she did thank me profusely but I said to her 'it wasn't me, this was a shared victory and everyone here in this community campaigned for you.’
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Read More on The Sun
“And obviously, full credit to Richard - he was the one who was relentless in his campaigning.
“We can't stop smiling!! Incredible to have my brave constituent Nazanin back home.”
'Six years is too long'
NAZANIN refused to thank Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in the wake of her return home, saying it should not have taken ministers six years to secure her freedom
The British-Iranian dual national called her reunion with her husband and daughter Gabriella “glorious”.
And she paid tribute at a press conference in Westminster, central London, to hubby Richard as “wonderful”.
He thanked officials for their efforts to end Nazanin’s hellish ordeal behind bars in Iran.
But Nazanin said: “I do not really agree with him on that level.
"I love you, Richard, and respect whatever you believe, but I was told many, many times, ‘Oh, we're going to get you home’. That never happened.”
She added: “How many Foreign Secretaries does it take for someone to come home? Five?
“What’s happened now should have happened six years ago.”
4
4
Topics