February 26, 2025
On 4 February 2025, Fine Cell Work, a charity committed to the rehabilitation of prisoners through providing purposeful activity, hosted an event titled “‘Dealing with the Reality of Imprisonment’: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in conversation with Cathy Newman”. Basanti Mardemootoo writes a blog in response.
Most of you reading this will be familiar with Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s story, her imprisonment and the numerous calls and campaigns dedicated to her release. Her experience made a mark on many around the world as we followed her journey and eventual release after being detained in Iran for nearly six years. The goal of Fine Cell Work’s event was to explore how Zaghari-Ratcliffe coped with the challenges of this time in prison and her life after release. Over the course of the evening, Zaghari-Ratcliffe spoke about the challenges she faced as a detainee and how cooking, crafts and needlework eventually became a lifeline for her.
She spoke candidly about the conditions she was made to live in, sharing that she had struggled sleeping for the first year of her imprisonment, how she suffered from claustrophobia and how the light would be on in her cell 24/7, with no option to turn it off. She had lost sense of time and space, having been in solitary wards for the first nine months of imprisonment before being moved to a general ward. As time went on, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was moved to a prison which was mainly for political prisoners. She described it as a small colony of life, a microcosm. She spoke about how cooking, sewing, making jewellery and doing leatherwork while detained led to little joys in life and that it was these joys that connected her to what she had on the outside. She recounted feeling a sense of liberation after making her first dress for herself, along with a matching one for her daughter. Zaghari-Ratcliffe did not know when she would be freed, she had been arrested for a certain purpose and until that had been served there was no chance for clemency. She was finally released in 2022 and explained that re-adjusting to life since then has come with its challenges. A constant remained, however, and even now, when she is down and tired, she will go sit and sew.
What stuck with me the most from this event was Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s answer to the question about what she most values about her freedom. She highlighted that before her arrest, she had a different understanding of freedom as concept – one based on the big things like freedom of expression – but that she now values the freedom she finds in being able to do the little things – taking a ten-minute walk and being able to sleep with the light off, to name a few. The concept of freedom was also touched on by Lara and Lennox, two of Fine Cell Work’s stitchers who were also invited to speak at this event. They both joined needlework classes in prison and spoke about how life changing this has been. Lennox spoke about its therapeutic effects and the opportunity it has given him to move forward with his life. Lara spoke about how finding these skills gave her a want to live, and taught her to be patient as well as kinder to herself.
Freedom, hope and empowerment were very much at the heart of the discussion throughout the evening and the captivating stories shared by the speakers truly embodied why the work being done by Fine Cell Work is of such importance.
Basanti Mardemootoo
Pupil Barrister
Barristers
Basanti Mardemootoo
Call: 2022