Despite claims to the contrary coming from Iranian authorirties earlier this week, the Vice-President admitted today that Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was beaten to death. To those of us following the story, her cause of death is hardly news, but the admission itself is remarkable, and points to a couple of very hopeful things going on in Iran.
First of all, I haven't blogged anything about Ms Kazemi. Not an oversight - I was holding out until I could find some of her work online. From the little I've seen, she was a talented and courageous journalist, recording both the suffering and the humanity in some of the most dangerous places on earth. I'd like to say more, but I've had no luck in finding her work to speak further about it, or better, to link to it. (If I find something, you'll be the first to know.)
What positives are we seeing from this tragedy? First of all, if a reformer is making this admission, if the President of Iran is flexing his political muscle enough to be able to investigate this sincerely, the reforming forces in Iran are clearly in ascendency. The old theocracy never would have allowed the investigation... bury the woman, bury the discussion, hope it goes away.
The second thing we're seeing is the vistory of constructive engagement. Canada's diplomatic relationship with Iran can hardly be called warm, but neither is it punctuated with threats and boycotts and calling them "evil". As a result, when something like this happens, the Canadian government still has some leverage that doesn't involve a B-2... Iran doesn't want to lose Canada's favour while our southern neighbours are beating the war drum.
Being a member of the Axis of Evil must be trying at times, and history suggests that the implied American threat plays into the hands of the hardliners. Ms Kazemi's death did nothing to change this political chess game going on in Iran, but I think we're seeing a lot more of the pieces than we usually do, and the moderate side looks to be in better shape than I thought.
Update: Bill Graham says that both I and the Vice-President of Iran may have spoken too soon about the precise cause of death.
... Graham said [Iranian] Foreign Minister Kharrazi told him that "she might have fallen or had an accident." He said that until it's known what happened, it's not possible to say what caused it.
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