Crafting as a Source of Inspiration in Prison
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has described how sewing provided her with inspiration and hope during her years of detention in an Iranian prison.
Speaking at the Hay Festival on Thursday, she detailed how obtaining permission to receive fabrics was a vital lifeline not only for herself but also for her fellow inmates.
The British-Iranian charity worker was detained by Iranian authorities in April 2016 and held in a political prison for nearly six years, used as a diplomatic pawn to exert pressure on London.
While incarcerated, Zaghari-Ratcliffe crafted clothes for her daughter Gabriella and made neckerchiefs for other women in the prison.
"I was not a confident seamstress [before prison]," she told the audience in Hay-on-Wye, Powys.
"My mum used to do sewing, but she would never allow me to use her sewing machine – and I'll never forgive her for that, because there was this urge in me to sew. We laugh about it now."
She explained that she used to buy fabrics from the luxury department store Liberty London, and her mother-in-law had gifted her a sewing machine and encouraged her to sew.
However, she felt the fabrics were "too special" to use, and it was only during her imprisonment that she realized she could overcome the challenge and create something.
Crafting was also part of the rehabilitation activities offered in prison, and a teacher assisted her in making a dress pattern.
Obtaining her Liberty fabrics inside the prison was a significant challenge.
"Fabrics were not allowed in prison. For some reason, they would allow us to have a certain number of garments per season," Zaghari-Ratcliffe explained.
"I had a stash I had kept for a special occasion and my mindset changed when I was inside prison... [it was] the Liberty name, we had a place where we had no liberty."
She received special written permission to bring in her fabrics, and her husband Richard "went through some efforts" to send them to her.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe began distributing the fabric among her fellow prisoners, stating,
"because everyone wanted to have a piece of liberty that they didn't have."
"In prison, everything is just basic. But people would still find ways to beautify themselves and hold on to their identity. People would be creative to make every little thing we would throw away as something to put on themselves."
She added that there was only one old industrial sewing machine in the prison, and she was assigned responsibility for its use.
"When I first had my daughter Gabriella – who was just 22 months old when I was detained – I dreamed of making matching dresses."
"It was tragic, because I did make matching dresses and I would send them and she would come to prison to see me and she would wear them, but in Iran I couldn't wear them because you have to cover. We could never wear them together."
Crafting helped prisoners by creating a "sense of travel to the world they might be in one day, or the world they used to be in."
"When your freedom is restricted - whether you are in prison, in my case, or stuck in a conflict, you're in hospital, there is illness, there is some sort of injustice – creativity creates a form of quick psychological exit for you, it mentally allows you to escape the place you are in."
Zaghari-Ratcliffe also engaged in crafts with her daughter, including origami and making tote bags, during weekly visits before Gabriella returned to the UK for school in 2019.
Sewing has also provided comfort during recent difficult times, such as after receiving news of US and Israel strikes on Iran on 28 February.
"I think I woke up about five o'clock in the morning... I quickly called my mum, and she said they were all good. The catastrophe hadn't quite hit then," she said.
"I needed to think... I sat at the sewing machine. It reminded me of the time I was in prison in a way. There was a lot going on around us, but we had to do something to take us out of that space.
"I spent five days doing nothing else... the only thing I could do was sew. That was my safe space."
"It was a very hard couple of months, it was difficult to get in touch with my family. Things gradually calmed down, especially post-ceasefire and I could call my parents through the landline.
"When I was explaining that to my daughter, she said: 'What do you mean? Do you mean WhatsApp?'"
The phone calls reminded her sister of when she was in prison, as they came from unknown numbers and had to be brief and to the point.
"It was really sad to think even though I am free, there are still things that remind her of that time."
After Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release, Liberty London contacted her, initially inviting her to the store after naming fabric lines after both her and her daughter.
This marked the beginning of a partnership, and Zaghari-Ratcliffe has since collaborated with Liberty and the Imperial War Museum to design a line of fabrics. These designs draw on Liberty archives and her own experiences to highlight remarkable stories of creativity and craft during periods of war and conflict.
One pattern reflects the monotony of prison life, while another depicts the rooftops she observed during her twice-daily 10-minute walks inside.
Liberty is donating these fabrics to prisoners to support their crafting activities.
"What was very important to me was to see that circle closing, or maybe just going back again into the next circle," said Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
"The moment these prisoners receive these fabrics into their hands when they have no liberty, it's how I felt, except these fabrics represent themselves.
"I felt this was brilliant. They will feel closer to the pattern and this made me feel so happy."
She has also created a quilt using fabrics that reminded her of her time in prison.
"[It] connects me to a world I both would want to go back to, and never go back to at the same time."
"When I came back, it reminded me of the fact that liberty is in every single small thing we have in life. The fact we can walk under the sun, that we can see the full moon once every month.
"Freedom is waking up and having a nice shower, freedom is being able to drink lots and lots of coffee, freedom is being able to go into a supermarket.
"For me, liberty is the joy of being free in that simple sense of enjoying life the way it is."
