The husband of jailed West Hampstead mum Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is launching a new wave of campaigning in the hope of bringing his wife and daughter Gabriella home from Iran in time for Christmas.
Richard Ratcliffe is facing a bleak Christmas alone as his wife Nazanin, 37, is serving a five-year sentence in an Iranian prison cell after being jailed without charge in September on issues of national security.
His daughter Gabriella is stuck in Tehran with her grandparents after her passport was seized by the Revolutionary Guard.
Looking through photographs of last Christmas, when the family were all together opening presents, Mr Ratcliffe said: “Christmas was one of the great discoveries for Nazanin coming to the UK. She was enchanted by the exuberant fun of it. I remember last Christmas with great fondness - our first in West Hampstead, as parents our first Christmas school play (actually nursery), and the confused delight of Gabriella helped on by her cousins discovering presents.
“A lot has happened since then, much still unknown, and it has been a quiet house these past months. But this Christmas I am hoping that will end - with a new wave of campaigning, I am hoping again it is a time to be together.”
As reported in the Ham&High Mr Ratcliffe has been campaigning to reunite his family ever since Nazanin and Gabriella, now two, were seized at Tehran airport on April 3 as they returned from a family holiday to visit her parents in Iran.
Last week he won the backing of more than 100 British politicians in a letter handed to the Foreign Office calling for foreign secretary Boris Johnson to secure her release.
This week he has announced the launch of an exhibition in his family’s honour entitled “Far From Home.”
He is appealing for youngsters aged between 5 to 15 years old around the country to send in postcards depicting their of “Far From Home” which will then be featured in the exhibition organised with the support of Amnesty International.
The postcards will be on display at The Crypt Gallery, in Dukes Road, Euston, alongside installations by a selection of artists on the same theme.
He said: “We would like your children to draw postcard sized pictures on the theme ‘Far from Home’, We would like them to draw what home means to them, what they would miss about home if they were far away, what they like to think about when they are away from home. or what they like about coming home. ”
Following the exhibition, the postcards will be organised into a travelling exhibition that will move each week until ending up in Nazanin’s and Gabriella’s local church in West Hampstead. Just before Christmas.
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