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Zahra Kazemi: the “red fee” to be “free” in Iran

“A savagely, beaten, raped and tortured body”, that’s what remains of Zahra Kazemi, brutally murdered in 2003 while in Iranian custody. She was a 54 year-old Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, whose guilt was of having portrayed a political demonstration in favour of people held in the Teheran’s Evin prison. Her fee to Iran was death. Paradoxically the place where she was born led her to death. She represents the living symbol of what the theocratic Republic of Iran was and continues being. Her courage should remind how strict and inhuman the Iranian legislation can be, by ignoring the international rights. Zahra is just a cold, dead body, buried in Shiraz, though her blood so alive and innocent sounds the human conscience. When she was arrested in the Evin prison, she was firstly accused of spying due to the photographs she caught, then beaten by a prisoner officer in the attempt of confiscating her camera. That’s what emerged after the autopsy by Dr. Shahram A'zam. According to the Iran’s judiciary, it was just a terrible accident, due to a fall after which Zahra fainted and mortally beat her head. However, Zahra’ s abused body spoke to Dr. Shahram A’zam. It talked about a rape, violence, skull fracture, bruised shoulder, broken fingers and nose. It cried the horror that hundreds of prisoners have been suffering. It clearly and loudly shook the international opinion about the lack of dignity in Iran, where the “due process of law” is completely absent. Each wound on her body is a mortal hurt on a human right. The vaginal damages the medical exams carried out, symbolically represent an intimate violation of the inner part a person owns: the dignity. What remains of Zahra Kazemi is the high “red fee” she paid to be free. It is red like the blood she wasted, heavy like the pain she suffered, strong like the moral duty to stop such crimes. “Sorry Zahra”, the world is standing by, waiting for new “dead men walking”, as courageous and generous to pay a higher “red fee” like you did before.

    Marirosa Barbieri - newcitizenpress.com - 26/11/2010

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