Naz Don’t Cry: Christmas single released for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Eighties pop group The Christians have released a Christmas single to raise money and awareness for the Free Nazanin campaign.

Richard Ratcliffe and his seven-year-old daughter Gabriella joined the group at the Coastal studios in Liverpool to record “Naz Don’t Cry”.

Footage released shows Gabriella enjoying taking turns on the drums and scenes from Ratcliffe’s hunger strike and campaigning over the years.

Last month, the 45-year-old accountant from West Hampstead, went on hunger strike for 21 days outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, demanding that the UK government take action to free his wife Nazanin, who is being detained in Iran.

He believes that she is being held hostage by Iran over a £400 million arms debt owed to them by the UK.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been held in Iran for five years on spying charges, recently lost her appeal against a second prison sentence.

The 43-year-old mother-of-one from West Hampstead, Camden, has been detained in Iran since 2016 and has not seen her daughter Gabriella in two years.

She is currently staying with her mother in Tehran, but is not allowed to leave the country.

This is her sixth Christmas away from her family.

In 1991, the Christians recorded a similar single called “Man Don’t Cry” about British journalist John McCarthy, who was held hostage in Lebanon for over five years.

Lead singer Garry Christian said: “The song is just to deliver the simple message that we are all standing shoulder to shoulder with Nazanin, her devoted husband Richard and beautiful daughter Gabriella.

“It’s absolutely desperate that after all these years she still hasn’t been released back to her family, if only this song could help in some tiny way.”

All proceeds from the song will go to Redress, a charity helping people who are tortured and imprisoned around the world.

Naz Don’t Cry can be downloaded on Spotify and Apple Music.