On March 17th, 2016, British-Iranian citizen, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe traveled to Iran with her 22-month-old daughter Gabriella, with the intention of visiting relatives and celebrating Nowruz (Iranian New Year). As Zaghari-Ratcliffe was about to board her flight home to the United Kingdom, she was arrested by the members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard at Imam Khomeini Airport.

Following her arrest, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held in Tehran’s Evin Prison. She was detained in Iran from April 3, 2016, to March 16, 2022 with charges of espionage against the Iranian government, which she continually denied. Zaghari-Ratcliffe formerly worked for the BBC World Service Trust. Following her association with BBC, she later became the project manager for Thomson Reuters Foundation; a London-based media and journalism charity. 

Sentenced to five years in prison in September 2016, she was briefly discharged during the COVID-19 Pandemic on March 17, 2020. During this time, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was monitored. 

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was due to be released when her original sentence was completed on March 7, 2021, however, she was scheduled for a second set of charges on March 14th. Throughout Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s years in prison, she endured two hunger strikes, a protest where a prisoner refuses to eat, with the hopes of protesting her confinement. Her first hunger strike lasted for three days. After the first hunger strike, Zaghari-Ratcliffe committed to an additional fifteen day long hunger strike.

During the time of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s arrest, her daughter’s British passport was seized and later returned as she remained with maternal grandparents.

On May 7th, 2016, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, established a virtual appeal in hopes of persuading Iran’s Supreme Leader and the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister to provide safe passage home for both his wife and daughter. Ratcliffe also embarked on a hunger strike to support his wife in her bondage.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released on March 16, 2022. She boarded a flight to return to the United Kingdom the day after her release.