Nazanin, a British-Iranian mother to 2 year old Gabriella, was detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard when awaiting her flight home from Tehran in February. She was thrown into an Iranian jail and has been held prisoner ever since. Following a secret trial and without any charges being disclosed, her family discovered this morning she has been sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. Nazanin communicated this news to her husband earlier, expressing her devastation at being separated from her daughter for a fifth of her life.
Little Gabriella (2) had her passport confiscated by the Iranian authorities when her mum was taken, and has been looked after by her grandparents in Iran ever since. Her British father has been advised it would not be safe for him to try to collect her from Iran.
As a parent to a 2 year old this horrendous case makes me well up - I can only imagine the horror of being separated from my child in this way.
AIBU to find the situation so heartbreaking and want to tell you all about it? I can't help but think that raising Nazanin's profile will help ensure she isn't forgotten given the resumption of diplomatic relations (and trade talks) with Iran in recent weeks.
AIBU?
to find the latest news about Nazanin Ratcliffe completel heartbreaking
MassDebate · 09/09/2016 23:16
It makes me so sad, but some people need to believe that the world works in a very simple and binary way.
Where good wins out and bad can be explained away.
So, if she's arrested, she must have broken a law, so, she got was what coming to her. In spite of the charges, trial and detention being by an undemocratic power with huge human rights breaches well known on a global level.
But no, she arrested = she guilty.
And then there's the idea that she 'chose' dual nationality, and chose to enter this country, soooo, oh yes, she deserves everything she gets.
Or she chose to go to the 'wrong' conferences, spoke to the 'wrong' people (people who are keen on human rights and change, those kind of bad people). So she therefore can be blamed, for making evidence than can be twisted by a corrupt state, or maybe for not being savvy enough to realize that possibility...
And of course, there's no smoke without fire and we're not being told the whole story, sure it's not as simple as all that... Therefore it's sure to be her fault// her husbands fault.
All simply strategies to continue the comfortable and local perspective that keeps the big wide world out. It's much nicer to believe in a world where awful things happen to people who aren't like us, who deserve it really, through guilt, or recklessness or lack of a crystal ball.
I don't think people mean to be mean. But that's what happens when something challenges the way we think and the way we get through life.
I know someone who is a friend of hers. All of their friends and family are tirelessly campaigning for them. It's a heartbreakingly sad situation for all involved. Cannot begin to understand what they are both going through 
little yes, it's a risk but it's a necessary evil for many, many Iranians in the west. How else do they see their families? Would you just accept that your parents can never meet your DC or take a calculated gamble (that, 99 times out of 100, does not end in imprisonment).
It's never simple but just to shrug and say "oh well, she knew the risk" belies the gravity of the situation for this poor family.
And Arabs and Persians are rather different (and both are equally offended if you confuse the two). 
So whatever she was doing at an "Arab" communications summit I suspect it had nothing to do with her detention.
littleducks given she is an innocent woman who was simply visiting her family with their grandchild I doubt she ever contemplated for one moment that this could happen to her 
. I'm sure the next time she has the liberty to leave the country she will go and never return to Iran, probably never seeing many of her family again.
The situation with Gabriella is that her passport has been confiscated and only one of her parents can take her out of Iran. Her mother is languishing in a high security prison and her father has been advised not to travel to Iran for his own safety. So she has been de facto detained, even if the UK authorities choose not to categorise her as such. If the UK government was able to guarantee his safety I'm sure her father would be there like a shot to collect his daughter. I can only imagine the pain and frustration he feels at not being able to do more for Nazanin and having to watch his toddler growing up from afar. It's unbearably cruel.
It's not as simple as that littleducks. The Iranian state does not recognize dual nationality and the passport cannot be "surrendered" in the way that we can here in the UK. Many Iranians obtain another passport - UK, US, etc - but then are prevented from traveling "home" on that passport, because the government does not permit or recognize it. So you are in a bind - because if you want to see your family again, then you have to take the risk of traveling as a "dual citizen". As DH does, several times a year. Not all Iranians can travel easily - you can imagine how "welcoming" most western countries are to those coming to visit. The obvious question is "why would you go back?"
My understanding is that the daughter's passport has been confiscated and her father has been advised that he is also at risk of arrest if he tries to go to Iran.
Whatever the full story is here, I would bet my boots she is not a "spy". The UK government is wetting itself over the prospect of lucrative contracts in Iran as it supposedly "liberalized" and is willing to ignore it's appalling human rights record. Same old, same old.
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