Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian charity worker and former detainee at Iran’s notorious Evin prison, has issued a sharp rebuke of Israel’s bombing of the facility earlier this week, calling it a reckless “publicity stunt” that risked innocent lives. Writing in The Guardian, she also criticized the UK’s Labour government for failing to condemn the ongoing strikes on Iran, particularly in light of U.S. military involvement.
The attack on Evin prison — a symbol of political repression in Iran and the site of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s five-year incarceration — is one of the most controversial moments in the deepening conflict between Israel and Iran. While Israeli officials have hinted the strike was aimed at weakening the regime’s grip or even sparking internal revolt, critics like Zaghari-Ratcliffe argue it achieved little beyond fear and suffering.
“Freedom does not come from bombs and brutality, nor from clever stunts for the cameras. It lies through human connection and empathy,” she wrote, drawing on her own traumatic experience in the prison.
A Voice of Conscience Amid Escalating Conflict
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s comments come as the Israeli-Iranian conflict spirals further, now involving direct U.S. military support and intensifying rhetoric around regime change. While many Iranians inside and outside the country share a deep resentment of the Iranian government’s repressive rule, they are equally alarmed by the growing civilian toll of military intervention.
“It has escalated into a proper war against Iran with the US intervention and the rhetoric of regime change,” Zaghari-Ratcliffe writes. “The mission creep has been unnerving even for those of us who have suffered at the hands of the Iranian regime.”
For the Labour government, already facing criticism across the political spectrum for its ambiguous stance on the legality of the strikes, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s words are particularly uncomfortable. She calls the UK’s silence “dangerous,” arguing that British ministers’ failure to criticize the attacks contributes to a sense of abandonment among civilians.
“The consequences are felt all around Tehran by families caught between a bomb and a hard place. They have felt very alone.”
Fears for Prisoners and Their Families
According to Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the bombing of Evin prison did not feel like liberation. Instead, it plunged detainees and their families into renewed fear and confusion. Some prisoners were injured or disappeared following the strike, and others were reportedly transferred without notice, leaving their families distraught.
“Bringing down the gates of Evin jail may have seemed like a symbolic act for a faraway media, but it did not feel like it made anyone safe inside. If anything, it took away lives,” she writes.
The former detainee says the attack forced her to finally speak out, having tried to avoid media coverage and interview requests in recent weeks due to the emotional toll. She says she has been in contact with other former political prisoners, many of whom share her alarm and horror over what is unfolding in Iran.
“The lives of those in prison might not matter to the governments fighting, but they do to their loved ones — whether ordinary Iranians, the families of political prisoners, or families of foreign hostages held far away.”
Oppression Tightens in Iran
Zaghari-Ratcliffe also warns that instead of destabilizing the Iranian regime, the bombings may provoke even harsher crackdowns. She notes that Iranian authorities have already increased arrests, cut internet access, and clamped down further on civilian dissent in the days following the attacks.
“Iran has started a tighter crackdown on civilians, including cutting the internet and making more arrests. Days are numb with helplessness and outrage.”
Background: From Hostage to Advocate
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in 2016 while visiting family in Iran and accused of spying — charges she always denied and for which no credible evidence was ever produced. Her release in 2022 followed years of international campaigning by her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, and came after the UK government settled a long-standing £400 million debt owed to Iran stemming from a decades-old arms deal.
Her case came to symbolise the plight of political hostages used as bargaining chips by authoritarian regimes. Today, she lives in London with her husband and daughter and remains an outspoken advocate for human rights and diplomacy over militarism.
A Divided Diaspora
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s words resonate with many in the Iranian diaspora who feel torn. They despise the Islamic Republic but recoil at military strikes that endanger civilians and destroy critical infrastructure. For this community, war is not liberation but a new form of trauma — one that risks silencing the very people it claims to free.
In speaking out against the violence, Zaghari-Ratcliffe offers a powerful reminder: human lives cannot be collateral in a geopolitical chess match. As bombs fall and rhetoric sharpens, her plea is simple — to listen, to protect, and to seek a path to freedom that does not run through blood and rubble.
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