Haikus for Nazanin has been created for collecting and sharing haikus written in support of the campaign to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who has been unlawfully imprisoned in Iran since 3rd April 2016.
Background
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a 38 year old British-Iranian charity worker, living in London with her husband Richard Ratcliffe and their three year old daughter, Gabriella.
In March 2016, Nazanin travelled with Gabriella to visit her family in Tehran and celebrate the Iranian New Year with them. As she was returning home, Nazanin was detained at the airport by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Following this cruel separation from her family, Nazanin suffered harsh interrogation and solitary confinement before being unjustly sentenced to serve five years in the notorious Evin Prison. She was sentenced following an unfair trial on secret charges. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) has declared Nazanin’s detention arbitrary and has called for her release.
In October 2017, Nazanin was approaching the time when, under Iranian Law, she would be eligible for early release. However, instead, Nazanin learned she may be facing additional charges and a lengthier prison sentence.
Her husband, Richard, launched a campaign to free his wife and return her to the UK, together with their daughter, Gabriella. Since Nazanin’s arrest, Gabriella has remained in the care of her grandparents in Tehran and has only seen her mother during brief visits to Evin Prison.
The campaign began with a petition at www.change.org/p/free-nazanin-ratcliffe and this has now gathered over 955,000 signatures from supporters worldwide.
For further information about Nazanin and her family and the campaign, please visit www.freenazanin.com
Haikus for Nazanin (#haikus4Naz)
This idea of #haikus4Naz comes from individuals who are supporters of the Free Nazanin campaign.
The aim is to use the form of the haiku to:
- Help share and spread awareness of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case
- Show support for Nazanin and her family for now and for the future and as another means sending messages to those in positions of power and influence.
The haikus could, for example, be about:
- Nazanin’s situation
- Messages of support
- General expressions of freedom, perhaps with reference to nature and the seasons, which is traditional of the form.
- Answering a question, such as: “What would you do with one day of freedom?”
What is a haiku?
Essentially, a haiku is Japanese form of poetry. It consists of seventeen syllables, divided into three lines of five, seven and five syllables respectively. There is no requirement for it to rhyme.
A few examples:
Sweetness is written
With a streak of endurance
In Nazanin’s face.
I would walk with you
While geese fly in cloudless sky,
Sunlight on their wings.
She dreams of her child,
Longing for a warm embrace.
We fight for her rights.
How to contribute haikus
Those who would like to support the Free Nazanin campaign with haikus are warmly invited to post their original poems on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, using hashtags #haikus4Naz and #FreeNazanin
We would also like to share haikus posted on social media on this blog and people are also welcome to post haikus as Comments. One aim is to build up a bank of messages of support for Nazanin and her family.
As the Free Nazanin campaign on social media is very collaborative, supporters may reuse and share words and images created by other supporters in the promotion of the campaign
We would love to be able to share and perhaps integrate some haikus into pictures and other graphics and, if you are happy to have your haikus used in this way, please let us know by posting a comment below. Authors of haikus will be credited (Name / Twitter handle), unless they request otherwise.
It is intended that all haikus are used solely in support of the Free Nazanin campaign. It is vital, however, that the copyright of authors is not infringed and we ask only original works are submitted via the Comments.
We look forward to seeing contributions on social media and in the Comments.
Thank you very much
Photo by Lobna Tarek 
Haikus For Nazanin 