Ahmad Batebi, the Economist’s face of the second revolution, was arrested shortly after July 17th 1999 following the world wide publication of his participation in the student protests. In his hands was the bloodied shirt of his fellow protester, a image used to sign Batebi’s death warrant following the accusation that he “defaced the face of the Islamic Republic that is a representative of God on earth” around the world.

After nine years he escaped from Iran, following a seizure leaving the right side of his body without feeling, smuggled by car then donkey through Iraq. On June 24th 2008 he arrived in America and later released his ordeal to CBS News:

Asked if he feels free now, he told Cooper, “No, I don’t feel free. I have a responsibility to the people imprisoned in Iran whose human rights are being violated. I have to get their message out. And it’s a big responsibility that doesn’t leave one free. But to an extent I do feel free. I live in a free country and I’ve left prison.”

But how does he feel about the image itself?

Looking at the picture that sparked his ordeal, he says that another man in his place might be angry, but he is not. Mr Batebi is a photographer himself. He says he understands what journalism involves. Had we not published the picture, he says, another paper might have. Looking at the same picture, his lawyer, interpreter and friend Lily Mazahery says she is close to tears: in it, the young Mr Batebi’s pale arms are as yet unscarred by torture.

How would you feel? Hmmmmmmmmmm.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 at 1:52 pm and is filed under Iran and tagged as economist, human rights, iranian, islamic republic. Print this blog post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.