MINNEAPOLIS — The mothers of two of the three Americans held for months in an Iranian prison said Monday that their children plan to marry after they are released.
Shane Bauer wove an engagement ring out of threads from his shirt, then met Sarah Shourd in an unlikely place for a marriage proposal: the exercise yard of the prison in Tehran where the couple has been locked up for nearly a year.
The engagement, which occurred in January, “shows they’re continuing to have hope. They’re planning for the future, which is very good,” Bauer’s mother, Cindy Hickey of Pine City, Minn., said two days after she and Shourd’s mother returned to the U.S. after a visit to see their children.
They were joined on the journey by the mother of a third American, Josh Fattal, Bauer’s college roommate, who is also imprisoned and will be the couple’s best man.
The Americans were taken into custody and accused of spying when they went for a hike in July along the border between Iraq and Iran.
Bauer, 27, and Shourd, 31, have been a couple for more than three years, Hickey said.
Over the weekend, Iran’s intelligence minister said his country would be open to a prisoner swap if Washington makes a humanitarian gesture toward Iranians.
