A British woman in prison in Iran has been knitting clothes for her daughter as she approaches 600 days behind bars.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Tehran in April 2016 as she tried to leave Iran after a visit with her two-year-old daughter. She vehemently denies claims she was plotting against the regime and Britain has called for her release.
Today she managed to get a message out via her husband and revealed lumps she had found in her chest are not believed to be cancerous.
In a bid to keep herself occupied, she has been making a crochet pinafore for her daughter Gabriella, making a pair of slippers and knitting a baby’s jumper in case she is freed and can have another child.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been held in an Iranian jail away from her daughter for nearly 600 days. She denies the fundamentalist state’s claims she is a spy
She has now spent more than 18 months away from daughter Gabriella, who is now three. Her husband is campaigning for her release
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years in prison after an Iranian court convicted her of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She denies the charge.
The row over Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s continued detention was heightened in recent weeks after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wrongly claimed she may have been training journalists.
In a message released today, she spoke of how Iranian TV has used the ensuing British parliamentary debate to repeat heavily-disputed claims that she was a spy.
In a message from her prison cell, she said: ‘It is torture to keep hearing these lies on TV. I get very agitated by all the press attention in Iran. I feel like I don’t have the capacity to do this anymore.
‘It has been so long they have been pressuring me, and then all this these past two weeks. I do not have the strength.’
Last week, her husband met Boris Johnson, whose comments on the case threatened to lengthen Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s sentence
Mr Ratcliffe, who has been unable to get an Iranian visa, has not seen his wife or their three-year-daughter, who is being cared for by her grandparents, since the ordeal began
She was however given some good news this week after managing to see a doctor, who told her lumps in her chest after not inflaming and are not thought to be cancerous.
But the 38-year-old, who is suffering from PTSD, depression and insomnia after being torn from her child, was denied the chance to see a psychiatrist.
She added: ‘People tell me here it is all about politics. But I don’t care about the politics. Surely I can be released on humanitarian grounds? There are humanitarian grounds for my baby and for me?
‘I don’t want to be in the news. I just want to be a normal person again, with a normal life with my child. I have been waiting for so long. All this time, away from my baby, and for what?’
British diplomats hope a plan to repay a £450million debt the UK owes Iran may improve relations between the two countries, leading to Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release.
‘I just want to be a normal person again’: Mother’s full statement from Iranian prison
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, pictured before her detention in Iran
“I have really been under pressure this week. It is torture to keep hearing these lies on TV. I get very agitated by all the press attention in Iran.
I feel like I don’t have the capacity to do this anymore. It has been so long they have been pressuring me, and then all this these past two weeks. I do not have the strength.
People tell me here it is all about politics. But I don’t care about the politics. Surely I can be released on humanitarian grounds? There are humanitarian grounds for my baby and for me?”
I cannot wait for this turmoil to end. It keeps me on the edge all the time. I don’t want to be in the news.
I just want to be a normal person again, with a normal life with my child. I have been waiting for so long. All this time, away from my baby, and for what?”