Boris Johnson said in 2017 that Nazanin Zaghari‑Ratcliffe had been “simply teaching people journalism” in Iran, a comment he later acknowledged “could have been clearer” and formally corrected.

What he originally said

  • As foreign secretary in November 2017, Johnson told a parliamentary committee that “when I look at what Nazanin Zaghari‑Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it.”
  • Iranian authorities and media then cited this line as supposed confirmation that she had engaged in activities beyond a family holiday, feeding their narrative that she was involved in “propaganda against the regime.”

Why it was controversial

  • Zaghari‑Ratcliffe’s family and her employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, insisted she had been in Iran purely on holiday visiting relatives and had never trained journalists there.
  • Campaigners and opposition politicians in the UK accused Johnson of making a serious blunder that risked worsening her legal situation and demanded he correct the record and even consider resigning.

His clarification and apology

  • After a backlash, Johnson phoned Iran’s foreign minister and later told Parliament that the UK government had “no doubt” she had been in Iran on holiday and that his comments provided “no justifiable basis” for further legal action.
  • He accepted that his remarks “could have been clearer,” expressed regret for the distress caused, and later apologised for “inadvertently causing her further anguish,” while arguing his words had not affected the Iranian judicial process.

Later context

  • The episode remained politically toxic for years and was frequently cited as an example of how a single high‑profile statement can shadow a detainee’s case.
  • Even after her eventual release in 2022, discussion of Johnson’s 2017 comment resurfaced, with critics saying she had “lived in the shadow of his words,” while Johnson continued to downplay their impact on the legal outcome.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.