Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is angered by the delay in her release from the Iranian prison. There’s other side of the coin.

4 min read.

In recent days and weeks when most of the democratic world is worried about the unthinkable atrocities being committed by Putin in Ukraine, which is having a direct impact on millions of people, one good news appeared out of the blue about the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual national of Iran and the UK, from the Iranian prison after six long years. Her incarceration in a country of her origin and citizenship was lamentable, and more so when the charges against her were patently trumped- up.

The national media treated the news with great enthusiasm. Her internment was unjustified and harsh, particularly when she was separated from her seven-year-old daughter, who was with her father in London.

At some stage of her first press conference, in high dudgeon, Nazanin lambasted the five Foreign Secretaries, past and present, who had taken six years to secure her release. The government agreed to the payment of about £400m debt to Iran over a failed arms deal dating back 40 years.

More interestingly, when Nazanin’s decorous husband thanked Liz Truss MP, the present Foreign Secretary, for the help she rendered in his wife’s release, she took a dim view of that. She lambasted all the five Foreign Secretaries. Her fallacious argument is that had they tried seriously, her ordeal would have ended soonest.

On her bandwagon laden with anger, Beth Rigby, the Sky News Correspondent and Jeremy Hunt MP, Chair of a Commons Select Committee, and a former Foreign Secretary, were the first to jump on it. Before I come to them, I better say something about Nazanin, who has been in the news for the last six years.

As I understand, she was born, raised, and educated in Iran, and did the job in her country before coming to London to do MA. Then she met her husband, a British guy and got married. Later she must have applied and granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK. I am not privy to it how she got it. Under the rules, if an alien marries a British citizen, he/she is supposed to go back to his/her country to submit an entry clearance application.

Nonetheless, after getting leave to remain, she must have spent five more years in the UK before she was entitled to apply for a British citizenship and then a passport. I can vouch for it that under no circumstances, without the application with the prescribed fee, the Home Office would have granted her leave to remain and later British citizenship on its own.

She did not renounce her Iranian citizenship. She wanted to have a cake and eat it, which she was allowed under the rules.

Then she decided to go to Iran for holidays and see her parents. She travelled on her Iranian passport. She might have left the country on the British passport but entered Iran on her Iranian one.

Questions are:

Was it the British Government who schematized her epoch-making visit to Iran, one of the top rogue countries on this planet?

Did she consult with the Foreign Office before travelling?

The answer to both the questions posed hereinabove is big NO. If so, there is no justification to point the finger at the government.

She knows that in this country there is freedom of speech, but as far as the public are concerned, they did not appreciate her preachy tone vis-à-vis the British government.

During her press conference nor at any other time since, she did not utter a single word against Iran, whose citizenship she still holds and cherishes. She knows that a cursory adverse reference to them would trigger an unimaginable reaction against her parents and relatives.

It looks that she would author a book about her experience in Iranian prisons and their sham judicial system. My advice is she should do it charily. There may be change of the regime run by Mullahs. How long will it take? In my candid opinion, if the time is counted in terms of the 13.8 billion years when the Universe began, it would take just a fraction of a minute i.e., about half a millennium before Mullahs would hand over the reign of the government to a democratic government.

About Beth Rigby, she spares no effort to criticise the government. She does more than the opposition leaders. She derives pleasure to put the words in the mouth of a whinging interviewee. She does not give a flying toss whether the stance is justified or not.

Jeremy Hunt had his own axe to grind to lay the blame on the past and present Foreign Secretaries, including himself. The other day he was supporting the cause of the doctors. The fact is that when he was the Health Secretary in 2016, he did not like the doctors’ strike. According to the Daily Mail:

“Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt savages striking doctors amid walkout plans.”

 Now he is weeping crocodile tears on their plight.

Furthermore, he did not know the distinction between Japanese and Chinese. His wife is Chinese and during an official visit to China at a meeting with their Foreign Minister, he said:

“My wife is Japanese….”

Then he added:

“Sorry, that’s a terrible mistake to make.”

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