‘Is Mummy Not Coming With Us?’: Richard Ratcliffe On Welcoming Home His And Jailed Nazanin’s Daughter

Her fight for freedom has seen her endure hunger strikes and solitary confinement, amid a major diplomatic row.

In July, more than 200 MPs called for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to use his powers to secure Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s safe release from Iran.

In a much-criticised error, Johnson said in 2017 that she was in Iran “teaching people journalism” – despite her family’s insistence that she was there to visit relatives.

The couple had spent a long time preparing their daughter to come back to the UK – but they hoped she would do so together with her mother, such was their faith that she would be released.

Ratcliffe said: “We spent a long time explaining to her that she was going to come home with mummy and that she should be ready for that, and now that’s not happened. Now something else is going to happen.

“So she was confused when that was first broken to her, and I think she’s a bit daunted about what will happen. She’s still asking ‘Is mummy going to come with us? Can granny come and visit? When can my cousins come?’

“So she’s looking forward to seeing her cousins here, and she’s looking forward to going to the toyshop and so on. But it’s all sort of abstract for her.”

Ratcliffe also pointed out that the move will see Gabriella go from being brought up in a largely gender-segregated society to being raised solely by her father.

“She’s still at that age where she’s definitely a girl, and boys are smelly,” Ratcliffe said. “It will need baby steps. I think in some ways it will be very traumatic for her. It will take time to adjust to it.”

The family has applied for an exit visa for Gabriella to leave the country, and if all goes well she should be back in the UK in time for Christmas.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s grief over these developments is palpable in her letter. “In the near future, my baby will leave me to go to her father and start school in the UK. It will be a daunting trip for her travelling and me left behind,” she wrote.

“And the authorities who hold me will watch on, unmoved at the injustice of separation. That first day at school is not for me.”

Ratcliffe is concerned about the effect the separation will have on his wife. 

He said: “She’s sad, and she’s not hiding it… We’ll only know how sad, and how long she’s sad for, when it happens, and there really are risks. Certainly I’m worried, certainly her family are worried. We will see what happens.”

Ratcliffe hopes bringing Gabriella to the UK will be a smooth process, but admitted: “Until it’s happened it hasn’t happened… It may be bumpy until it’s sorted. It would be a big call for them to block her, but you don’t know until you try.”