Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was held in an Iranian political prison for nearly six years after being detained in April 2016, has spoken publicly about the role that sewing played in sustaining her sense of self during what she described as an extraordinarily difficult period. Addressing an audience at the Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye on Thursday, she recounted how special written permission had to be obtained before any fabric could be brought into the facility, a process that required considerable effort on the part of her husband Richard, who arranged for the materials to be sent to her. Among the fabrics she had chosen to bring in were lengths from the London department store Liberty — a detail that she reflected on with some wry humour, noting that the name itself carried an unintended resonance. She began making clothes for her daughter Gabriella, as well as neckerchiefs for fellow inmates, and said that access to craft activities had been offered as part of broader rehabilitation efforts within the prison, where a teacher helped her to develop a dress pattern. What emerged from her account was a picture of how material creativity can serve as a form of quiet resistance. She described distributing fabric among other prisoners, suggesting that the act of beautifying oneself and holding on to personal identity retained a quiet defiance even within highly controlled conditions. It is understood that this kind of testimony is increasingly recognised by researchers studying the psychological effects of prolonged detention.…