Actresses count down Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s 5-year sentence with readings of Iran prison letters

A theatre group that dramatised the life of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe will count down to her scheduled release date with readings of her letters and poems written from inside Evin prison.

The 10-day countdown starts with a reading of the first letter she sent from prison to her daughter Gabriella, who Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe calls Gisou.

The poignant letter was written in January 2017 and looks forward to the day she is released.

“There will come a day when I will learn if strawberries and blueberries are still your favourite fruit, if orange is still your favourite colour. Maybe they are no longer,” she wrote.

The letter is to be read by Elena Carys Thomas, the actress who recently played Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe in a touring stage play.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual citizen, was arrested as she prepared to leave Iran with her daughter in April 2016 after visiting her parents in Tehran.

She was jailed for five years on espionage charges and the regime resisted diplomatic and personal appeals for her freedom.

Her family maintain she is being held as a pawn in a broader diplomatic battle between the UK and Iran, in a continuing dispute over a £400 million ($558m) arms deal debt owed by Britain that dates back to the 1970s.

The daily videos will also feature actresses including Emma Thompson and Olivia Colman in the run-up to her scheduled release date of March 7. The project will include readings of letters and poems by past and present political prisoners held in Iran.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, is currently out of prison and living under house arrest at her parents' home. She has to wear an electronic tag to ensure she does not leave the country.

Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, expressed concerns that she will not be allowed to leave the country at the conclusion of her sentence.

Emi Howell of Howell Productions, which staged Nazanin's Story and is organising the daily Twitter countdown, said they prepared different videos for the final day, depending on whether Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe is allowed to return home.

“This will be released on March 8, International Women’s Day, in the hope we will be celebrating Nazanin’s safe return home or to raise awareness of her imprisonment going beyond her sentence,” Ms Howell said.

“Nazanin’s detention and sentence are unjust. She has been tortured and abused and should never have been seized at the airport in the first place.”