Displaying items by tag: Anoosheh Ashoori

For the last six years, Prayer Alert readers have often been asked to pray for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, held in an Iranian jail on charges of plotting to overthrow the government. She was freed on 16 March, as was retired civil engineer Anoosheh Ashoori, and they have both been reunited with their families in the UK. Mr Ashoori had been detained in 2017 on spying charges and sentenced to ten years in prison. Another prisoner, Morad Tahbaz, has been released but must stay in Iran. As Nazanin walked down the plane's stairs seven-year-old Gabriella Radcliffe asked, ‘Is that Mummy?’ Mr Ashoori's daughter Elika spoke of her happiness at seeing her father, sharing a video of the pair's arrival. Their release came after the UK settled a debt to Iran of almost £400m dating from the 1970s. This news follows last week’s positive report of a landmark decision that nine Christians jailed for their faith should be freed from prison.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori are now united with their families in the UK after years of detention in the notorious Evin Prison, which has a reputation for torture and abusing human rights. Over the years, Iranian converts to Christianity have been detained there as well as Iran’s political dissidents and critics of the government. In 2021 a medical assessment by a human rights charity found Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from her treatment in Evin. The foreign secretary said, ‘Nazanin is held unlawfully, and it amounts to torture the way she's being treated.’ While in Evin Nazanin has suffered deep depression, hair loss, and sickness. Torture is internationally prohibited. Anoosheh Ashoori said, ‘Like Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, I was locked in Evin jail. My struggle was trying to stay sane. We are continuously fighting against cockroaches, rats and bed bugs that attack all night. Extraction fans pump stinking air from bathrooms, toilets and three sewage manholes. The food is foul - only the needy eat it.’