Call me callous if you must but does anybody else feel that something ain’t quite right over the freeing and subsequent media coverage of the release of the Iranian hostage Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe? I don’t mean that it isn’t right that she is free, I am very glad she is but I was really underwhelmed and not a little infuriated by her press conference on 21 March which, while I didn’t expect her to call for the nuclear annihilation of Iran, I expected some criticism. What I did not expect was yet another mainstream media and presumably Labour Party inspired criticism of Britain and the British government and, by implication, the British people. I have plenty to criticise the British government over but when they are acting in the capacity of negotiating the freeing of a hostage, I think we should give them a bit of credit. After all, they achieved it and that covers five Foreign Secretaries coming from both sides of the political divide.
What struck me first, never having seen the lady before, was how astonishingly beautiful she was and that was combined with a very dignified and articulate approach to her statement. I didn’t expect her to come in bruised and battered with her teeth hanging out but she did not look like someone who had been through the kind of ordeal that was reported. That said, it is never a good optic to play up regarding the excesses of your captors, especially cruel ones like the Iranians, and a much better response is to look as if you have shaken it off and that life goes on. I also have no doubt that, whatever vicissitudes she suffered, the pain of separation from her husband and two-year old daughter for six years was almost unbearable. As said above, I hardly expected her to call for Armageddon in Iran, she still has family and, presumably, friends there. Such a call would undoubtedly leave them vulnerable to persecution and when it comes to persecution, the Iranians are Olympic champions.
But far from there being a complete absence of criticism of the Iranian regime—I mean, they’re big boys, they know what they’ve done, and they can take it—there was an almost unrelenting diatribe about Britain. And I am sorry Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, but you lost a great deal of my sympathy over this. I am sure I am not alone. In fact, you were even publicly critical of your husband. For crying out loud, this man chained himself to railings and went on hunger strike to get you back. I wonder what he is thinking now. The whole press conference was a media manipulated set up from start to finish. You were the star of the show and by God, you knew it. Your husband tried a few of the reassuring ‘you’ll be OK’ hand holds while you sat there cool as a cucumber. I’ve little doubt most of that was stage managed but then he reminded you to remove your outer garments which you did theatrically before speaking. I am not sure what that was about other than to reveal more of yourself to the world but the fact that these—matching your MP Tulip Siddiq who was sitting beside you—were in the colours of the Ukrainian flag showed just how on message you were with the assembled Twitterati.
The session was opened by flowery Tulip who said that you would not be answering any political questions only personal ones. And then, after a heavily political statement, you went and did precisely the opposite. Asked about your ordeal you refused to respond (call me cynical but I guess we’ll have to wait for the book to be serialised in the Sunday Times) and eagerly laid into the British government for not getting you out sooner. Listen Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, it was not the British government that held you hostage it was your own people and why should we instantly cough up £400 million—even if it is a debt—to free anyone? They should not have taken you hostage in return for the money and by paying it we will simply encourage this to be done by them again, or by anyone, the next time someone has a claim on us (and ‘us’ is the British taxpayers by the way). I am negotiating with my neighbour over getting the dividing fence between my property and the next repaired after it blew down. If he does not pay his share, should I go and take his wife hostage until he pays up?
You complained that successive Foreign Secretaries had told you they were going to get you out, and that they didn’t. Not quite true, they did eventually. What did you expect from them? They are hardly going to say: ‘tough luck luv, you’ll have to spend the rest of your life in Iran’. And they were not going to turn up at the jail with a file and a sledgehammer and break you out. I must give them the benefit of the doubt and hope that they were doing their best to free you and, most of all, I hope that they tried their best to avoid paying the debt specifically in return for your freedom. Apart from anything else, there are international sanctions against Iran and that includes the repaying pro tem of debts. You also asked for your privacy to be respected but believe me, after that performance, I don’t want to hear another word you have to say.
I had to stop listening to the press conference as my cerebral aneurysm was playing up. I know it will never happen as Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, having flown the Ukrainian flag and shown she is one of us, will have been taken to the hearts of the chattering classes and thus, will be beyond reproach. But I think that someone in the British government should take her to task publicly (it may either make or end their career but either way they’ll have done the right thing), puncture the sanctity of hostagehood and demand that she goes back on air to make an apology to the British people. If she does not do this, I will not be alone in concluding that what we have back in our midst is someone who is entitled, unappreciative, whose judgement is very poor and who has been very badly advised.
Finally, to try to mitigate a mobbing on Twitter, and being doorstepped by Mr Zaghari-Ratcliffe himself, I think what the Iranian government did was completely wrong. I know some Iranians and their government is an embarrassment to them. Taking human hostages, with all the pain that inflicts, is completely unjustified. Mr Zaghari-Ratcliffe, I cannot imagine you being separated from your lovely wife for six months, let alone six years and your lovely little girl missing six years of her mother’s life. And vice versa. As Tulip Siddiq said in Parliament, you have set a very high bar for any other husbands whose wives are taken hostage. It is well known how readjusting to normal family life can be very hard for both the former hostage and the family and, within your family unit, I wish you well. But please think carefully before your wife is permitted to make any further public appearances.
Opinions from the Unity News Network (UNN) editorial team & various contributors. | UNN always clearly distinguishes between news and opinion pieces and as an open minded outlet we publish views from a variety of people and organisation that do not necessarily reflect the views of UNN or its writers. Articles published under UNN Opinions are always opinion pieces and if published on behalf of a contributor will contain that authors name at the start of the piece.
