How Nazanin is using her freedom to fight for those still being oppressed by the Iranian regime
I first met Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe shortly after she was released from prison in Iran and reunited with her husband Richard and daughter Gabriella.
We met in a coffee shop near her home and talked about what she had been through.
Her arrest, her incarceration and her and Richard’s six-year battle to get her home. Gabriella was less than two years old when her mother was wrongly imprisoned, and nearly eight when she came home.
This was a woman who had travelled to Iran on holiday in 2016, a mother of a young child and a private citizen, and she returned home a national figure, whose story had become front page news not just in the UK but around the world.
Nazanin’s was a case that eventually also instructed Iranian-British relations, after then foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt escalated her plight to a formal, legal dispute between Tehran and London in 2018.
And when her freedom was finally secured in March 2022, with the UK paying a historic £400m debt to Iran, then the foreign secretary, and now prime minister, Liz Truss, was waiting in Northolt to greet her off the plane.
Through her own ordeal Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had lit a touchpaper against oppression, injustice and the abuse of women, when she emerged from the notorious Evin prison and house arrest, she became a symbol of freedom and overcoming adversity.
But she was above all else a mother that had been separated from her child for six years, and after a press conference, a BBC interview and the odd newspaper interview, Nazanin dropped off the radar. It was an attempt to get back to some sort of normal life.
And then, on Nazanin’s six-month anniversary of freedom, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was arrested for allegedly wearing a hijab headscarf in an “improper” way.
Mahsa Amini. Pic: Center for Human Rights in Iran
Her death sparked protests across Iran, despite the crackdown on anti-regime demonstrations which has led to hundreds of arrests and dozens of deaths, according to Amnesty International.
It also ignited memories and anger for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who herself was arrested at the airport as she was about to fly home, separated from her child and then put in solitary confinement for nine months.
“It does bring memories of when I was arrested, but also how helpless you are when you are in custody. What has helped the Iranian regime sustain the way they are treating people is just the way they arrest you and they disconnect you from the rest of the world.
“So they put them in solitary confinement, or they take you somewhere unknown and they break you emotionally. So this in my head, every time that I hear the news of somebody being arrested, I think about what I have gone through, the night of my arrest, imagining what they will be going through now.
“With Mahsa’s arrest and her death, and then subsequent arrests and everything, this whole story of six years ago came back to me again,” she explains, and says her daughter has picked up that “mummy is not really happy”.
“I think it would be very hard to just sit back and relax. Even though I am living far away, but my heart it still with them.”
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, right, sat down for an interview with Sky’s Beth Rigby
Nazanin also tells me that she thinks it’s her “responsibility” to speak up, and to stand in solidarity with Iranians protesting. She cut her hair in a show of solidarity with women in Iran, reciting the names of men and women who were imprisoned or had died at the hands of the regime. And she also decided to give an interview to Sky News to raise the case of Iranian women and implore political leaders “not to turn a blind eye” to what is happening. She told me the UK government “must act” over human rights abuses.
“I want them (the UK government) to protect us. We cannot be indifferent to what is happening in Iran. And if we talk about protecting the rights of citizens, we have to do something about it. And I think we have to hold Iran accountable. And the world has to make it very, very expensive for Iran to violate human rights so easily. It should be costly.”
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has cut her hair in a show of solidarity for women in Iran. Pic: BBC
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe tells me she wants to see sanctions in place and argues that any discussion over nuclear deals with Iran, and trying to prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons, should not in any way compromise Western countries’ approach to human rights. “That should be a completely separate topic,” she tells me.
She also wants to see the UK government “observe”, “protect” and “act” over the human rights abuses in Iran, including introducing sanctions, and that she is “expecting Liz Truss to condemn what’s happening” in the country.
Read more:
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As for the women, who on the streets of Iran that are fighting, as she did during her six years of incarceration, there will be no going back. “What I do believe is Iran will never be the same. Whatever happens in the future, it will never go back to where it was before September.”
Whether it’s regime change or a change in approach to women, is hard to read, but Nazanin is sure that change cannot be thwarted and she intends to use her voice and her platform to press the case for fellow Iranian women. “I never felt free when I came out, as I have mentioned many times, freedom would only be complete when there is nobody in Iran put into prison for standing up for their rights.”
A woman freed, but forever tied to the battle she didn’t want or ask to fight. Now fighting for and with those women and men caught up in the oppression of the Iranian regime.
The last blast furnaces left operating in Britain could see their fate sealed within days, after their Chinese owners took the decision to cut off the crucial supply of ingredients keeping them running.
Jingye, the owner of British Steel in Scunthorpe, has, according to union representatives, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.
The upshot is that they may have to close next month – even sooner than the earliest date suggested for its closure.
Read more: Thousands of jobs at risk as British Steel consults unions over closure
The fate of the blast furnaces – the last two domestic sources of virgin steel, made from iron ore rather than recycled – is likely to be determined in a matter of days, with the Department for Business and Trade now actively pondering nationalisation.
The upshot is that even as Britain contends with a trade war across the Atlantic, it is now working against the clock to secure the future of steelmaking at Scunthorpe.
The talks between the government and Jingye broke down last week after the Chinese company, which bought British Steel out of receivership in 2020, rejected a £500m offer of public money to replace the existing furnaces with electric arc furnaces.
The sum is the same one it offered to Tata Steel, which has shut down the other remaining UK blast furnaces in Port Talbot and is planning to build electric furnaces – which have far lower carbon emissions.
These steel workers could soon be out of work
However, the owners argue that the amount is too little to justify extra investment at Scunthorpe, and said last week they were now consulting on the date of shutting both the blast furnaces and the attached steelworks.
Since British Steel is the main provider of steel rails to Network Rail – as well as other construction steels available from only a few sites in the world – the closure would leave the UK more reliant on imports for critical infrastructure sites.
However, since the site belongs to its Chinese owners, a decision to nationalise the site would involve radical steps government officials are wary of taking.
They also fear leaving taxpayers exposed to a potentially loss-making business for the long run.
The dilemma has been heightened by the sharp turn in geopolitical sentiment following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The incipient trade war and threatened cut in American support to Europe have sparked fresh calls for countries to act urgently to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those used for defence and infrastructure.
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Gareth Stace, head of UK Steel, the industry lobby group, said: “Talks seem to have broken down between government and British Steel.
“My advice to government is: please, Jonathan Reynolds, Business Secretary, get back round that negotiating table, thrash out a deal, and if a deal can’t be found in the next few days, then I fear for the very future of the sector, but also here for Scunthorpe steelworks.”
British Steel declined to comment.
UK
Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace branded ‘crude attempt to enrich himself’ as Chinese spy documents set to be released
Prince Andrew’s efforts to make money from his Pitch@Palace project have been branded as a “crude attempt to enrich himself” at the expense of “unsuspecting tech founders”, as new documents may shed more light on what he and his team have been attempting to sell.
Today is the deadline for documents to be released relating to Prince Andrew‘s former senior adviser Dominic Hampshire and his interactions with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
In February, an immigration tribunal heard how the intelligence services had contacted Mr Hampshire about Mr Yang back in 2022. Mr Yang helped set up Pitch@Palace China, a branch of the duke’s scheme to help young entrepreneurs.
The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew
Yang Tengbo. Pic: Pitch@Palace
Judges banned Mr Yang from the UK, saying his association with a senior royal had made Prince Andrew “vulnerable” and posed a threat to national security. Mr Yang challenged that decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
Since that hearing, media organisations have applied for certain documents relating to the case and Mr Hampshire’s support for Mr Yang to be made public. SIAC agreed to release some information of public interest. It is hoped they may include more details on deals that he was trying to do on behalf of Prince Andrew.
So what do we know about potential deals for Pitch@Palace so far?
In February, Sky News confirmed that palace officials had a meeting last summer with tech funding company StartupBootcamp to discuss a potential tie-up between them and Prince Andrew relating to his Pitch@Palace project.
The palace wasn’t involved in the fine details of a deal but wanted guarantees to make sure it wouldn’t impact the Royal Family in the future. Sky News understands from one source that the price being discussed for Pitch was around £750,000 – there are, however, reports that a deal may have stalled.
Photos we found on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce website show an event held in Asia between StartupBootcamp and Innovate Global, believed to be an offshoot of Pitch.
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Who is alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo?
Documents, released in relation to the investigations into Mr Tengbo, have also shown how much the duke has always seen Pitch as a way of potentially making money. One document from 21 August 2021 clearly states “the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.
But Prince Andrew’s apparent intention to use Pitch to make money has led to concerns about whether he is unfairly using the contacts and information he gained when he was a working royal.
Norman Baker, former MP and author of books on royal finances, believes it is “a crude attempt to enrich himself” and goes against what the tech entrepreneurs thought they were signing up for.
Read more:
Who is Yang Tenbo?
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He told Sky News: “The data given by these business people was given on the basis it was an official operation and not something for Prince Andrew, and so in my view, Prince Andrew had no right legally or morally to take the data which has been collected, a huge amount of data, and sell it…
“And quite clearly if you’re going to sell it off to StartupBootcamp, that is not what people had in mind. The entrepreneurs who joined Pitch@Palace did not do so to enrich Prince Andrew,” he said.
Rich Wilson was one tech entrepreneur who was approached at the start of Pitch@Palace to sign up, but he stepped away when he spotted a clause in the contract saying they’d be entitled to 2% equity in any funding he secured.
He feels Prince Andrew is continuing to use those he made a show of supporting.
He said: “It makes me feel sick. I think it’s terrible – that he is continuing to exploit unsuspecting tech founders in this way. A lot of them, I’m quite grey and old in the tooth now, I saw it coming, but clearly most didn’t. And a lot of them were quite young.
“It’ll be their first venture and you’re learning on the trot, so to speak. So to take advantage of people in such a major way – that’s an awful, sickening thing to do.”
We approached StartupBootcamp who said they had no comment to make, and the Duke of York’s office did not respond.
With reports that a deal may have stalled, it could be a big setback for the duke – especially with questions still about how he’ll continue to pay for his home on the Windsor estate now that the King no longer gives him financial support.
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