Founder’s Day - The 2025 Sion College Lecture

Evin Prison and its Aftermath:

Finding Freedom During & after Imprisonment in Iran

Speaker: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Wednesday 5th November at The Dutch Church, 7 Austin Friars, London EC2N 2HA

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a project manager at Thomson Reuters Foundation and has previously worked for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and WHO in Iran, and BBC Media Action. She is a British-Iranian dual national, who was held hostage in Iran between April 2016 and March 2022 as part of a long-running dispute between Britain and Iran. In September 2016 she was sentenced to five years on national security grounds. A second case was opened against her in October 2017 to prevent her eligibility for parole in the wake of a separate court hearing in London over a long running debt dispute between Iran and the UK, over the UK’s failure to deliver tanks to Iran in 1979.

Nazanin was temporarily released on 17 March 2020 during the Covid pandemic, but restricted by electronic tagging and monitoring. At the end of her first sentence in March 2021, she was given a second conviction, and another year’s imprisonment. Following negotiations between Iran and the UK, she was finally released on 16 March 2022, after a long campaign from her family and community, when Britain repaid its outstanding debt of £393.8 million to Iran, and she returned to the UK the next day.

Since her return, Nazanin has campaigned for women’s and prisoner rights in Iran and the UK and written about the meaning of freedom during and after incarceration. Nazanin’s personal experience and that of her family gives her a unique insight into international relations between Iran and the rest of the world.  Her experience tested the ties of family love, confronting five foreign secretaries and taking an ordinary family behind the curtain of international hostage diplomacy and secret deals.

Entry to the Dutch Church will be from 5:15pm, with Evening Prayer at 5:30pm. After this there will be a drinks reception downstairs, followed by the lecture in the Church at 6:30pm and a buffet dinner at 7:45pm. The evening will finish with departure by 9:30pm.

Fellows and members are invited to apply for places for guests (maximum one guest each). However, please note that guest applications can only be accepted if there is space after applications from fellows and members.

If you have not yet registered for online payment you will be asked to do this and your registration will need to be validated by the Administrator before you can use the facility. You will only need to register once, and for any applications for subsequent events you will need only to log in. Payment is taken by PayPal, but you do not need a PayPal account. 

Please note

• Successful applicants (Fellows/ Members) will be notified by Wednesday 22nd October, 2025
• Cancellations notified after Tuesday 28th October, 2025 will not be refunded
• Applicants will be notified if they have been given a guest place by Wednesday 29th October
• Attendees will be expected to honour any food choices submitted in advance
• It is Sion College policy that no events are recorded

Sion events are often over-subscribed and each place is generously subsidised. If you are offered a place but are unable to attend for any reason, please let the office know so that your place may be offered to another applicant. In the event of failure to attend without notice after being reserved a place, the Court will require a refund of the subsidy.  Application for a place at any Sion event constitutes acceptance of this proviso.

Event Details