Explained | Who is Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, imprisoned in Iran for six years?

Nazanin Ratcliffe returned to the UK after being held in Tehran for almost six years on charges of plotting against the government, two others were also released simultaneously

The story so far: On March 17, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, announced that British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe had finally returned to the country, after almost six years of detention in Iran. Ms. Truss also announced that two other citizens — Anoosheh Ashoori and Morad Tahbaz had been released by the Iranian government. However, only one — Mr. Ashoori — could return to the UK. 

Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, 43, is a dual citizen of Iran and the United Kingdom. Born in the Iranian capital Tehran, she studied English literature and went on to become an English teacher.

In 2003, the massive earthquake in Iran prompted her turn toward aid-work. She joined the Japanese International Cooperation Agency as a relief worker. Later, she worked with the International Federation of Red Cross, the Red Crescent Societies, and the World Health Organization, where she assumed the position of a communications officer.

In 2007, she moved to the UK on a scholarship at the London Metropolitan University to study communications management. She married Richard Ratcliffe in 2009.

In 2011, she started working with the Thomson Reuters Foundation (THF), an organisation advocating for human rights and freedom of speech and expression, first as a project worker and then a project manager. Prior to joining THF, she also worked with BBC Media Action, an international development charity.

In 2014, her daughter Gabriella was born, after which Ms. Ratcliffe would visit her family in Iran more often — twice a year, as per her husband, Mr. Ratcliffe.

In March 2016, Ms. Ratcliffe had flown to Iran with her daughter Gabriella, who was almost two years old at the time, to celebrate the Iranian New Year with her family. In April, when she was at the Imam Khomeini Airport to return to the UK, members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard arrested her, saying that she was behind a "foreign-linked hostile network".