A former Finnish-Iranian dual national who was jailed alongside high-profile British-Iranian prisoner Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been offered a scholarship at Oxford University, four years after being released through UK diplomatic efforts.
\nAna Diamond, now a British-Finnish dual national, spent 200 days in solitary confinement aged 19 in Tehran\u2019s notorious Evin prison, in the same wing as Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
\nDiamond faced the death penalty after being charged with spying when customs authorities on arrival found images on her laptop of her attending UK political events.
\nEvin prison guards subjected her to brutal interrogation techniques. \u201cThey would say that the only place I would graduate from would be Evin University,\u201d she said.
\nBut Diamond, now 24, proved her Iranian jailers wrong this week after graduating with a first from King\u2019s College and receiving a scholarship to study for a postgraduate degree in modern Persian studies at Oxford University.
\nShe said Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is still under house arrest in Iran, had emailed her with a message of \u201cgrace and kindness.\u201d
\nRichard Ratcliffe, who is seeking to organize his wife\u2019s return to the UK, said the scholarship has \u201cbrought his family hope.\u201d
\nDiamond said: \u201cThis is the beginning of a new chapter. My success demonstrates how dreams cannot be chained, stolen or put in exile. The guards were wrong.\u201d
\nTwo years after she was jailed in 2015, then-UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson visited Iran urging hostage releases, resulting in all charges against Diamond being dropped.
\nThe UK provided her with an emergency passport and she fled Iran, but has suffered long-term post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and heart problems. Diamond has since helped Ratcliffe campaign for his wife\u2019s release.
\nRatcliffe, who has not seen his wife in person since 2015, praised Diamond. \u201cHow she has been able to rebuild her life, across the continuing ups and downs and the shadows of Evin, is a reminder that with perseverance, and the care of many other people, Nazanin can learn to feel the sun again when there\u2019s a break in the clouds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former Finnish-Iranian dual national who was jailed alongside high-profile British-Iranian prisoner Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been offered a scholarship at Oxford University, four years after being released through UK diplomatic efforts. Ana Diamond, now a British-Finnish dual national, spent 200 days in solitary confinement aged 19 in Tehran\u2019s notorious Evin prison, in the same wing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n