Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Zoe Williams

Long after Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is home and Boris Johnson’s gone, we’ll remember how he failed her

Richard Ratcliffe holds a photograph of his wife Nazanin during his hunger strike in October 2021.
‘It is nearly six years since Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was first detained.’ Photograph: Vickie Flores/EPA

Just when you thought you couldn’t take any more bad news, a sudden bright spot on the horizon: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, along with another detained British-Iranian Anoosheh Ashoori, are flying back to the UK from Tehran airport. Hopefully, they’ll soon be home.

It is nearly six years since she was first detained. In that time, she has been imprisoned, separated from her daughter, she’s suffered unimaginable mental distress, and known the cruellest false dawn as her original sentence for spying ended, only for her to be rearrested for “propaganda activities”. Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who has been through two hunger strikes, ended the second with the simple, devastating decision that their daughter “needs two parents”.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.