Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe shares support of Iran protests

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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has issued a video of her cutting her hair in a symbolic act of solidarity with Iranian protesters who’ve spent a fortnight demonstrating. The 44-year-old British and Iranian national, spent six years in an Iran cell after she was arrested on spying charges, which she vehemently denied. The mother of one is seen taking scissors to her hair and cutting it in a symbolic act.

It follows protests globally after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody after she was detained in Tehran by morality police who thought she was wearing her hijab too loosely.

Women have been filmed cutting their hair – a form of ancient Persian symbol of protest – and burning hijabs in symbolic gestures.

The hair-cutting footage involving Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was given to BBC Persian while she named Mahsa Amini in the clip.

She said at the end of the video: “For my mother, for my daughter, for the fear of solitary confinement, for the women of my country, for my freedom.”

She was detained herself, on security charges, in 2016 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard at Imam Khoemeini airport after a holiday in which she’d introduced her daughter to her parents.

She was accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government and denied spying charges.

Iranian state media said 41 people, including members of the police and a pro-government militia, have died during the protests, although human rights groups have reported a higher toll.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday said that the death of a young woman in custody had “saddened” everyone in the Islamic Republic, but warned that “chaos” would not be accepted.

Amini, who was from the northwestern Kurdish city of Saqez, died in hospital after falling into a coma, sparking the first big show of dissent on Iran’s streets since authorities crushed protests against a rise in gasoline prices in 2019.

Raisi, who had ordered an investigation into Amini’s death, said “forensics will present report on her death in the coming days”.

Despite a growing death toll and a fierce crackdown by security forces using tear gas, clubs, and in some cases, live ammunition, social media videos showed Iranians persisting with protests, chanting “Death to the dictator”.

Still, a collapse of the Islamic Republic seems remote in the near term since its leaders are determined not to show the kind of weakness they believe sealed the fate of the U.S.-backed Shah in 1979, a senior Iranian official told Reuters.

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Dozens of Iranian celebrities, soccer players and artists – inside and outside the country – have backed the demonstrations.

Iran’s hardline judiciary said it will press charges against them, according to state media.

“Whoever participated and ignited the chaos and riots will be held to account,” warned Raisi, while adding that “no one should be afraid to express their views”.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday they fired missiles and drones at militant targets in the Kurdish region of neighbouring northern Iraq, where an official said nine people were killed.

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