On 17 March 2016, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe flew to Iran to visit her elderly parents. A project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was raised in the Iranian capital of Tehran, but has dual citizenship with the UK, where she married and gave birth to a daughter, Gabriella.

Gabriella, then 22 months old, accompanied her mother on the trip to Iran, while Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s English husband remained at their family home in north London. He thought he would see his wife and young daughter again in a fortnight.

But when Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Gabriella attempted to fly home to London at the start of April, their lives changed forever. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard arrested Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and took her to a Tehran jail. Gabriella was placed into the care of her grandparents, and wouldn’t come face-to-face with her mother again for over two years. She was only reunited with her father three and a half years later in October 2019, when she returned to the UK to start school.

It has now been over three years since Zaghari-Ratcliffe was jailed in Iran. She was sentenced to five years in prison in September 2016 on vague charges of plotting against the Iranian regime, something she has always denied.

On 23 January, Richard Ratcliffe was due to meet with Boris Johnson for the first time since 2017, when the then foreign secretary promised to “leave no stone unturned” to bring his wife home.

“I want to ask him to be brave,” Ratcliffe told BBC Breakfast. “My message to him will be you can’t just wait for things to calm down, things are volatile inherently and they’ll get worse unless you do something clear.”

Amnesty International says Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imprisonment may be based on the fact that she once worked for the BBC World Service Trust. Now known as BBC Media Action, the international charity has provided training for Iranian journalists and bloggers perceived as being critical of their country’s regime.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s connection to the organisation has been enough to see her accused of helping to incite rebellion in Iran, despite the fact that BBC Media Action has said she only worked there for 18 months in a junior role – and was never involved in training Iranian journalists.

The situation was not helped by Johnson, who – in one of his most catastrophic blunders as the then foreign secretary – mistakenly described her as a journalism teacher. His statement was later used as evidence against her.

For the vast majority of us, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s situation is unthinkable. To be separated from one’s family, denied vital medical treatment and imprisoned for years on end, facing charges of which you are innocent, is the stuff of nightmares – but her family and supporters have refused to give up hope that she will be released.

Below, we’ve rounded up three ways that you can support the #FreeNazanin campaign. 

1) Write to your MP and/or foreign secretary Dominic Raab

Press coverage of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case will rise thanks to her husband’s meeting with Boris Johnson, but it’s still important to remind the foreign secretary how many people care about her fate. You can contact the foreign secretary via email at fcocorrespondence@fco.gov.uk.

Alternatively, write to your MP and ask them to raise Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Gabriella’s situation with Raab and the prime minister. Find out how to contact your MP easily via writetothem.com.

2) Donate to charities supporting Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s cause

Amnesty International and anti-torture charity the Redress Trust have provided vital support to the #FreeNazanin campaign. 

While it’s not possible to donate specifically to Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s cause, any contributions you make will help their essential work helping victims of human rights abuses in Iran and around the world.  

3) Sign the petitions

Amnesty International’s petition calls on Iran’s three most powerful figures – the country’s Supreme Leader, the head of the judiciary and the president – to free Zaghari-Ratcliffe “immediately”. It also demands that she is granted access to her daughter, British consular assistance and medical care. Sign it here.

Richard Ratcliffe has his own petition on change.org, calling on Prime Minister Theresa May to do more to return his wife and daughter to the UK. Once you’ve signed these petitions, make sure to share them on social media to raise awareness of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s cause.

For more ways to help get Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Gabriella back to the UK, visit freenazanin.com.

This article was originally published on 15 January 2019 and has been updated throughout.

Images: Getty / Free Nazanin