Zahra Kazemi - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Zahra "Ziba" Kazemi-Ahmadabadi (زهرا کاظمی احمدآبادی in Persian

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

)‎ (1949 – July 11, 2003) was an Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian-Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

freelance photographer, residing in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Canada

Canada

, who died in the custody of Iranian officials following her arrest.

Although Iranian authorities insist that her death was accidental and that she died of a stroke while being interrogated, Shahram Azam

Shahram Azam

Shahram Azam is an Iranian doctor famous for his testimony in the death of Zahra Kazemi.Dr. Azam claims to have worked as a doctor at Tehran's Baghiattulah military hospital before fleeing Iran. On June 27, 2003, the unconscious body of Kazemi was brought in for examination, and Dr. Azam...

, a former military staff physician who used his purported knowledge of Kazemi's case for seeking asylum in Canada in 2004, has stated that he examined Kazemi's body and observed that Kazemi showed obvious signs of torture, including a skull fracture

Skull fracture

A skull fracture is a break in one or more of the bones in the skull usually occurring as a result of blunt force trauma. If the force of the impact is excessive the bone may fracture at or near the site of the impact...

, broken nose, signs of rape

Rape

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

and severe abdominal bruising. Iranian officials claimed that Azam had been afflicted with mental health issues and that he had been discharged before Kazemi's death.

Her death was the first time an Iranian's death in custody attracted major international attention. Because of her joint citizenship and the circumstances of her death, she has since become an international cause célèbre

Cause célèbre

A is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...

. In November 2003, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression is a Canadian non-governmental organization supported by Canadian journalists and advocates of freedom of expression. The purpose of the organization is to defend the rights of journalists and contribute to the development of press freedom throughout the...

honoured Kazemi with the Tara Singh Hayer

Tara Singh Hayer

Tara Singh Hayer, OBC was a Sikh Canadian newspaper publisher who was murdered.Hayer was born in Paddi Jagir, a small village in Punjab, India...

Memorial Award in recognition of her courage in defending the right to free expression.

Life and death

Born in Shiraz

Shiraz, Iran

Shiraz is the sixth most populous city in Iran and is the capital of Fars Province, the city's 2009 population was 1,455,073. Shiraz is located in the southwest of Iran on the Roodkhaneye Khoshk seasonal river...

, Iran, Kazemi moved to France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

in 1974 to study literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

and cinema

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

at the University of Paris

University of Paris

The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

. With her son, Stephan Hachemi, she immigrate

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

d to Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada

Canada

in 1993, where she later gained dual citizenship as an Iranian and Canadian national. She worked in Africa, Latin-America and the Caribbean and then more frequently in various Middle Eastern countries, including the Palestinian territories

Palestinian territories

The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...

, Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

and Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. She visited the latter two countries both prior and during the US occupation. Immediately prior to her travelling to Iran, Kazemi had revisited Iraq, documenting the American occupation. Recurrent themes in her work were the documentation of poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

, destitution, forced exile and oppression

Oppression

Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and...

, but also the strength of women in these situations.

Arrest

Traveling back to her birth country using her Iranian passport, Kazemi was allowed into Iran to take photographs of the possible demonstrations that were expected to take place in Tehran

Tehran

Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...

in July, 2003. The demonstrations did materialize but were effectively crushed after the sixth day by a massive deployment of security forces and paramilitary vigilantes, or "plainclothesmen." Following the clampdown, an estimated 4000 students "had gone missing" and were thought to have been arrested for protesting and taken to Evin prison

Evin Prison

Evin House of Detention is a prison in Iran, located in Evin, northwestern Tehran. It is noted for its political prisoners' wing, where prisoners have been held both before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution...

, Tehran's political prisoner detention facility. As was customary after such events, family members of the missing gathered outside of Evin prison in north Tehran in hopes of learning what had happened to their children. On June 23, 2003, Kazemi drove to the prison to take pictures of these family members, possessing a government-issued press card that she thought made it permissible for her to work around Tehran, including at Evin.

According to Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. On 10 October 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's,...

- an Iranian lawyer and former judge who won the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...

in 2003, and later became the main representative of Kazemi's family at the trial over Kazemi's death - when a prison staff member saw Kazemi taking photographs he demanded that she give him her camera, as photography is prohibited in front of the prison.

Worried that officials might harass the families whose photos she had already taken, she flashed her press card and exposed the film to the light. The guard angrily yelled at her, ‘I didn't ask you to expose your film, I told you to give me your camera’ ‘You can have the camera’, she retorted, ‘but the film belongs to me.’ She was detained, and was interrogated over the next three days by police officers, prosecutors, and intelligence officials.

The Evin prison staff, whom the Kazemi family's lawyers consider a party in the beatings that led to Kazemi's death, say that she had been in a sensitive area, photographing parts of the prison. Several days after her arrest, hardline newspapers began running stories of her arrest "calling her a spy who had entered the country undercover as a journalist."

Kazemi had insisted that she did not photograph any part of the prison, only the street and the demonstrators, who were family members of activist students jailed in the prison.

Death

On July 11, 2003, nineteen days after she was arrested, Kazemi died in Iranian custody in Baghiyyatollah al-Azam Military Hospital

Baghiyyatollah al-Azam Military Hospital

The Baghiyyatollah al-Azam Military Hospital is a military hospital in Iran. It is located in Mulla Sadra Street in Vanak, Tehran.-See also:*Zahra Kazemi*Shahram Azam...

. Two days later, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported that Kazemi had suffered a stroke while she was being interrogated and died in hospital. This account changed to one that Kazemi had died after falling and hitting her head. On July 16, 2003, Iran's vice-president, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, "conceded that Kazemi died as a result of being beaten". Mohammad Ali Abtahi

Mohammad Ali Abtahi

Hojjat ol-Eslam Seyyed Mohammad Ali Abtahi is an Iranian theologian, scholar, pro-democracy activist and chairman of the Institute for Interreligious Dialogue. He is a former Vice President of Iran and a close associate of former President Mohammad Khatami...

, the Vice President of Legal Affairs and Masoud Pezeshkian

Masoud Pezeshkian

Masood Pezeshkian was Minister of Health and Medical Education of Iran between 2001 and 2005. He was also the chancellor of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences for 7 years. He is a heart surgeon and he is an academic member of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences at the present time. He is...

, the Minister of Health and Medical Education) admitted that she had died of a fractured skull as a result of being hit in the head. Abtahi claims that he was under a lot of pressure to take back the acknowledgement, but he resisted it.

Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadi

reports that security officials searched the house of an unnamed friend that Kazemi had been staying at, and "kept asking" her friend about Kazemi's "‘medical condition’ and what medicines she took daily." Officials also kept Kazemi's elderly, frail mother who had journeyed from Shiraz to see her only child, from seeing Kazemi until they had questioned her about what the medicines they insisted her daughter must be using. Kazemi's friend told Ebadi that she later realized this meant Kazemi was dead and the officials "wanted to claim that Ziba had a preexisting condition that had simply worsened in prison."

The story did not become a major controversy until almost two years later, when Shahram Azam, a former staff physician in Iran's Defence Ministry, released a statement saying, he examined Kazemi in hospital, four days after her arrest and found obvious signs of torture, including:

Evidence of a very brutal rape

A skull fracture, two broken fingers, missing fingernails, a crushed big toe and a broken nose.

Severe abdominal bruising, swelling behind the head and a bruised shoulder.

Deep scratches on the neck and evidence of flogging on the legs.

One of the two Iranian intelligence agents charged with her death was acquitted in September, 2003. The other agent, Mohammed Reza Aghdam-Ahmadi (محمدرضا اقدم احمدی), was charged with "semi-intentional murder" and his trial opened in Tehran in October, 2003. In the same month, the Iranian parliament condemned Saeed Mortazavi

Saeed Mortazavi

Saeed Murtazavi is a controversial Iranian jurist and former prosecutor of the Islamic Revolutionary Court, and Prosecutor General of Tehran, a position he has held from 2003 to 2009. He has been called as "butcher of the press" and "torturer of Tehran" by some observers...

, a Tehran prosecutor, for announcing that Kazemi had died of a stroke. On July 25, 2004, Aghdam-Ahmadi was acquitted.

Murder trial

Shirin Ebadi

was the main representative of Kazemi's family at the trial, and represented them at the second and third sessions of Aghdam-Ahmadi's trial, which took place on July 17 and July 18, 2004. In the court, Kazemi's mother mentioned that she wanted the real murderer to be prosecuted. She also mentioned that she saw Kazemi's body before the burial, upon which there were signs of torture

Torture

Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

.

Ebadi and the other lawyers of the family insisted in the court that they know that Kazemi was not killed by Aghdam-Ahmadi, and they need witnesses to be brought to the court in order to find the real murderer, who they guessed may be Mohammad Bakhshi, a high officer of the Evin prison. The list of witnesses they requested included Saeed Mortazavi

Saeed Mortazavi

, the general prosecutor of Tehran Mohsen Armin

Mohsen Armin

Mohsen Armin is an Iranian politician. He was a representative for Tehran and vice speaker of the Majlis during the sixth term of the Majlis. He is also a central committee member and speaker of MIRO.-References:...

, reformist member of the previous parliament

Majlis of Iran

The National Consultative Assembly of Iran , also called The Iranian Parliament or People's House, is the national legislative body of Iran...

Hossein Ansari-Rad, Jamileh Kadivar

Jamileh Kadivar

-Biography:Jamileh Kadivar was born in Fasa, a town near Shiraz in southern Iran. She attended school in Shiraz until she was 16 years old, when she moved to Tehran to get married. Her spouse is former Minister of Culture of Iran Ata'ollah Mohajerani and they have four children: Mohammad Mohsen ,...

, and Mohsen Mirdamadi

Mohsen Mirdamadi

Mohsen Mirdamadi, was an organizer of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, a member of the parliament of Iran from 2000-2004, and the "head of the largest pro-reform party" in Iran, Islamic Iran Participation Front since 2006....

, Minister of Intelligence Ali Younesi

Ali Younesi

Hojatoleslam Ali Younesi was the director of the Ministry of Intelligence and a member of the Supreme National Security Council during the presidency Mohammad Khatami in Iran....

, the Vice President of Legal Affairs Mohammad Ali Abtahi

Mohammad Ali Abtahi

, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ahmad Masjedjamei, the five judges who were present during Kazemi's interrogation, a few employees of the Evin prison, the president of the Baghiyyatollah hospital, and all of the medical staff who had signed her file. Judge Farahani denied all of the requests. The lawyers also quoted the official report of death that various of parts of Kazemi's body had been damaged and her clothes were torn and bloody, which proves that she had been tortured.

On July 14, 2004, the Iranian government rejected requests for Canadian government observers to attend the trial, despite promises and assurances by the Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi

Kamal Kharrazi

Seyed Kamal Kharazi is an Iranian politician and diplomat who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs from August 20, 1997 to August 24, 2005 as appointed by President Mohammad Khatami serving for eight years...

and judiciary officials to the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Bill Graham. The same day, Graham recalled the ambassador at Tehran, Philip MacKinnon. But later, MacKinnon, together with the Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

ambassador (representing the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

) and diplomats from the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

and French

France

embassies, were allowed to attend the July 17 trial, though not the July 18 one. The Judge Farahani was quoted on July 18 as saying that "(he) made a mistake yesterday. The bar is to show the world that Iran won't bow under pressure." Hamid Reza Assefi

Hamid Reza Assefi

Hamid Reza Assefi was born in Mashhad, Iran. Spokesman, Vice Minister of Parliamentary and Consular Affairs and Communication, and the Special Assistant to the Minister at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs under President Khatami. He is now Iran's ambassador to the UAE.He was an ambassador...

, the spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said "We hadn't permitted an observer from the beginning. But you should ask the reason for the ban from the court, there may had been a shortage of seats." Assefi also said that since Iran does not recognize dual nationality and Kazemi was an Iranian citizen who entered the country under an Iranian passport, never having requested her citizenship to be removed, that the case was clearly an internal affair.

The trial sessions ended on July 18, with the lawyers of the Kazemi family insisting that the time had not been enough for proofs to be given, witnesses to be brought to court, and the murderer to be identified. They also mentioned that the court didn't pay attention to their evidence. They refused to sign the session notes. The Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, Bill Graham, defined these events as "flagrant denial of due process".

On July 24, Judge Farahani issued his judgement, clearing Aghdam-Ahmadi of the charges. He also mentioned that since the murderer has not been found, according to the Islamic sources the blood money

Blood money (term)

Blood money is money or some sort of compensation paid by an offender or his family group to the family or kin group of the victim.-Particular examples and uses:...

should be paid by the government to the family. The lawyers of Kazemi's family announced that they will definitely appeal the case, asking for a criminal court to be established to reconsider the whole case, or completing the numerous incompletenesses of the file. They also mentioned that if the family asks, they will bring the case to the international authorities, mentioning Iran's 1954 signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...

. The end of July saw Iran's judiciary adding "accidental fall" and "hunger strike" to the list of alleged causes for Kazemi's death. They claimed that Kazemi had gone on a hunger strike voluntarily, developed low blood pressure that made her dizzy, fallen, and hit her head. Detractors point out that this story does not explain her broken bones, genital injuries or skin lacerations.

Timeline of events following Kazemi's death

July 13, 2003 - IRNA, Iran's official news agency, reports that Kazemi "suffered a stroke when she was subject to interrogation and died in hospital." The same day, under pressure from Canada, Iran's president, Mohammad Khatami, orders an assembly of five ministers to investigate her death.

July 16, 2003 - Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, says, he believes, his mother has in fact been buried in Iran and is demanding the body be returned to Canada.

July 20, 2003 - IRNA reports that Kazemi died from a fractured skull caused by "a physical attack."

July 21, 2003 - Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi
Saeed Mortazavi
Saeed Murtazavi is a controversial Iranian jurist and former prosecutor of the Islamic Revolutionary Court, and Prosecutor General of Tehran, a position he has held from 2003 to 2009. He has been called as "butcher of the press" and "torturer of Tehran" by some observers...

is appointed by Iran to head an independent investigative group to look into Kazemi's death. This appointment is immediately fiercely attacked by pro-reformist Iranian MPs
Majlis of Iran
The National Consultative Assembly of Iran , also called The Iranian Parliament or People's House, is the national legislative body of Iran...

, as Mortazavi had himself been accused of failing to prevent Kazemi's death, and was widely believed to be behind a recent wave of arrests of writers and journalists. Given this controversy, the investigation appeared unlikely to mollify Canada, which was growing increasingly impatient with Iran's unwillingness to "clearly demonstrate that officials are not allowed to act with impunity" (Foreign Minister Bill Graham, news conference).

July 23, 2003 - Kazemi's body is buried in her hometown of Shiraz
Shiraz, Iran
Shiraz is the sixth most populous city in Iran and is the capital of Fars Province, the city's 2009 population was 1,455,073. Shiraz is located in the southwest of Iran on the Roodkhaneye Khoshk seasonal river...

in Iran, supposedly according to the wishes of her mother (Ezzat Kazemi) and relatives in Iran, but contrary to the wishes of her son (Stephan Hachemi, who resides in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

), and Canadian officials. Consequently, Canada recalls its ambassador to Iran, and discusses the possibility of sanctions against Iran. (Her mother later said that she had been put under pressure to approve of an Iranian burial.)

July 25, 2003 - The Iranian Foreign Minister echoes the words of Canadian officials almost word for word while addressing Ottawa, in reference to the death of an 18-year-old Iranian citizen (Keyvan Tabesh) in Port Moody
Port Moody, British Columbia
Port Moody is a small, crescent-shaped city in Metro Vancouver, located at the east end of Burrard Inlet in British Columbia, Canada. Port Moody is the smallest of the Tri-Cities, bordered by Coquitlam on the east and south, and Burnaby on the west. The villages of Belcarra and Anmore, along with...

, Canada, by plainclothes police officers. The shooting occurred around the same time as Ms. Kazemi's death. He demands that Canadian officials "clearly demonstrate that officials in Canada are not allowed to act with impunity, ... [and] The Islamic republic will seek through diplomatic channels clear and convincing explanations of this crime." A Port Moody police investigation later finds that the use of force in the incident was consistent with police guidelines.

July 26, 2003 - Iran announces that it has arrested five members of its security services in connection with the investigation, but gives no further details.

July 30, 2003 - Iran's vice-president, Mohammad Ali Abtahi
Mohammad Ali Abtahi
Hojjat ol-Eslam Seyyed Mohammad Ali Abtahi is an Iranian theologian, scholar, pro-democracy activist and chairman of the Institute for Interreligious Dialogue. He is a former Vice President of Iran and a close associate of former President Mohammad Khatami...

says that Kazemi was probably murdered by government agents.

August 25, 2003 - Two Iranian intelligence agents who had interrogated Kazemi are charged with complicity in her death. The Teheran prosecutor's office releases a statement reading in part, "The charges leveled against the interrogators, who are said to be members of the Intelligence Ministry, are announced as complicity in semi-intentional murder."

July 26, 2004 - Kazemi’s mother also told the court that her daughter had been tortured, and said she was pressured into burying her daughter at her birthplace in southern Iran under duress in order to deny Canada the opportunity to carry out its own autopsy.

March 31, 2005 - Dr. Shahram Azam
Shahram Azam
Shahram Azam is an Iranian doctor famous for his testimony in the death of Zahra Kazemi.Dr. Azam claims to have worked as a doctor at Tehran's Baghiattulah military hospital before fleeing Iran. On June 27, 2003, the unconscious body of Kazemi was brought in for examination, and Dr. Azam...

, the Iranian doctor who examined Kazemi just prior to her death, said he was shocked by the extent of her injuries, and felt she had been torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

d. He reported injuries consistent with torture, such as flogging wounds on the back and missing fingernails. A female nurse told him of "brutal" genital injuries. Azam did not give her a vaginal examination himself as it is considered inappropriate in Iran for a male physician to examine a woman in this manner. Azam fled the country, seeking political asylum in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

in order to tell his story.

Aftermath

In June 2005, an exhibition of photos taken by Zahra Kazemi during her travels in Middle East were shut down following complaints. Her work which was being displayed at a municipal library in the Montreal borough of Côte Saint-Luc was referred to as being "too sympathetic" to the Palestinian uprising. A library patron specifically complained about 5 photos depicting scenes of the Palestinian refugee camps which were immediately removed by the Gallery officials to avoid controversy. In response, Kazemi's son, Stephen Hachemi, refused to allow the remaining photos to be displayed at the exhibition and told Radio-Canada that dismantling the exhibition shows lack of respect and they should either display all or none of the photos. Following this, the library officials closed the entire exhibit. Côte Saint-Luc Mayor Robert Libman told CBC news "It's a very complicated conflict, and to create an impression where the Palestinian cause is being martyred by oppression by the Israeli government, we don't consider that to be a fair portrait, in the future, such politically charged work won't be displayed at the library".

Her life has been one of the inspirations for the popular webcomic

Webcomic

Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....

, Zahra's Paradise

Zahra's Paradise

Zahra's Paradise is a webcomic set in modern Iran. It has been described as a political webcomic dealing with real-time events. Its story follows a mother searching for her son, who disappeared in around the time of the Iran’s 2009 elections. Serialized online at zahrasparadise.com since early...

External links

from the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center

CBC Montreal news story
BBC News story
BBC News's analysis of the trial
Burial in Iran
BBC This World, Iran: A Murder Mystery, broadcast in the UK on February 15 2004 Reports of the July 17, 2004 trial session in Vaghaye http://www.vaghaye.com/13830428/Page-6.html and Shargh http://www.sharghnewspaper.com/830428/index.htm, http://www.sharghnewspaper.com/830428/gover.htm#s86760 newspapers
obituary of Zahra Kazemi. by Khosro Naghed
Khosro Naghed
Khosro Naghed is a Persian scholar, Iranist and linguist.He wrote numerous books and articles on Iranian culture, Persian history, Persian language and literature and philosophy. His articles have appeared in international as well as Iranian journals inside Iran and has influence on Iranian...

(Persian)
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression Urges Action
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/65794/Free Expression Groups Call for Justice - IFEX
International Freedom of Expression Exchange
The International Freedom of Expression eXchange , founded in 1992, is a global network of around 90 non-governmental organisations that promotes and defends the right to freedom of expression....

]
CBC: Background on Kazemi
Leader appointed prosecutor Mortazavi murdered Zahra Kazemi
WWF: Zahra Kazemi articles

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