Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has described the response to her appearance at Glastonbury Festival as “humbling” after she received a standing ovation during a debate on Friday afternoon.
Speaking to the PA news agency at her first Glastonbury Festival, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe also explained how a picture from the Somerset showpiece in 2019 of a “Free Nazanin” banner had been a “heartwarming” moment for her while she was incarcerated in an Iranian jail for six years.
A packed crowd at the Left Field tent on Worthy Farm stood and applauded Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe for around 40 seconds after a speech she made in the middle of a debate by an all-female panel to discuss the rights of women in Iran.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who appeared emotional as she held her hands to her chest in appreciation of the ovation, told PA afterwards: “It was humbling to see all those people turning up.
“People are here to listen to music and they’re not here to listen to someone who is talking about a horrific story.
“I was very happy to see that people are caring to the point that they would stop by to listen to my story.
“Even if they think about it for another half an hour, I think it would be a good thing.”
During the debate Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe Nazanin spoke about her imprisonment for six years in Iran and the power of “being a voice” for those who are imprisoned or oppressed.
She noted the impact made on her by a “very low quality” photograph that was smuggled into prison to her of a man carrying a child on his shoulders, a similar age to her own daughter, at Glastonbury Festival in 2019 – next to a banner which read “Free Nazanin”.
Speaking afterwards, she said: “One of the functions of prisons is to isolate you.
“I knew that my husband was campaigning to get me home, but the details of that and all that love and care and support… I don’t think I knew even a fraction of that.
“Knowing that your story has has gone far enough to reach Glastonbury, which is one of the biggest music festivals in the UK, probably in the world, it is heartwarming.
“That is a very, very good feeling when you’re left on your own in prison.”
During the talk onstage, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe said the first names of eight friends she made in Iranian prison who she is still campaigning to help free: Nilufar, Sepideh, Mahvash, Fariba, Morad, Siamak, Emaad and Nargess.
Asked what message she would like her friends to hear from her after the debate, she said: “I want my friends to know that I will be their voice as much as I can, and what they have gone through has been unjust.
“If I can change that, for them to come home only a teeny tiny bit earlier, then I will definitely do that.
“I will be their voice and I will tell their stories and the story of their injustice until such time that they come home.”
On the message she wished to share with the crowd during her appearance Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe said: “When I was detained on the morning of April 3 2016, freedom looked all the time (like) something that is a given.
“But that’s not the case – you might be free today, you might not be free tomorrow.
“The world probably is very bleak and dark in my case, it doesn’t happen to everyone.
“But just to know that there are some people whose freedom is taken away from them by force, and to think about it, I think that’s a very important thing… especially given what is happening in Iran at the moment.”
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard Ratcliffe, who fought a public campaign to get her freed including two hunger strikes, described being at Glastonbury Festival with his wife and daughter as a “happy ending”.
“It’s nice to be a happy ending,” he told PA.
“It’s nice to be here, not quite as a normal family because here we are doing interviews, but being able to go out and breathe again and bump into old friends.
“My life is much happier now than it was a couple years ago.”
Mr Ratcliffe added that the family got to meet the man who was carrying a Free Nazanin banner at Glastonbury 2019.
“(To have) that kind of closure on all that’s happened before and just breath… my life is much happier now than it was a couple of years ago,” he said.
