Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who spent six years in jail in Iran, is to write a memoir with her husband Richard Ratcliffe.
The book, which is currently untitled, will tell the full story of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imprisonment in Iran and her husband’s campaign for her release.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in 2016 and separated from her daughter as she was about to board a flight home from Iran. She was in Tehran visiting her parents. She was accused of spying by Iranian authorities, an accusation she denied.
Her husband organised a long-running campaign to free her, which included a 21-day hunger strike outside the Foreign Office. Following the campaign and negotiation between the British and Iranian governments, Zaghari-Ratcliffe returned home to the UK in March.
Following her release, Zaghari-Ratcliffe accused the UK Foreign Office of being complicit in forcing her to sign a letter of false confession to the Iranian government as part of the last-minute terms. The government said it had not forced her to sign the letter, but advised her the Iranians would not allow her to leave the country unless she did so.
Speaking about the memoir, which will be released in autumn 2023 by Penguin Random House, Zaghari-Ratcliffe said her “story as a hostage is unique, but it is also the story of many other women in Iran in prison who are unknown but have helped me enormously to go through this journey and come out of it stronger”.
“My story is a story of my own uncertainty, fear, faith, survival, hope and love but also the story of unity and solidarity from so many others,” she added. “Their struggles continue today.”
Last month, Zaghari-Ratcliffe filmed herself cutting her hair in solidarity with protesters in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in custody after being arrested for allegedly wearing a hijab headscarf in an improper way.
At the end of the video, Zaghari-Ratcliffe said: “For my mother, for my daughter, for the fear of solitary confinement, for the women of my country, for freedom.”
Ratcliffe said that parts of the couple’s story were “always on television, but some of the most important parts got missed”.
“Six years on, our story feels like a discovery of the darker sides of governments, and of the kinder sides of people, but also across all the twists and turns simply how we survived,” he added. “It took a village to get Nazanin home. I am really glad we have a happy ending to share.”
Becky Hardie, deputy publishing director at Penguin Random House’s Chatto & Windus imprint, said the book was “about the power of love, the strength to resist and Nazanin’s long journey home to her family”.
She added: “It is so human, so moving and so immediate, readers will be gripped from the start. But it brings with it important messages about our politics, and our roles as individuals in society. This is a book that will change how we understand ourselves and our world; it will be a landmark piece of publishing that will live on for decades to come.”
• This article was amended on 18 October 2022. An earlier version mistakenly said Zaghari-Ratcliffe had travelled to Tehran for work: she was there visiting her family as our previous coverage has made clear.
