Die aus dem Iran stammende US-amerikanische Journalistin Roxana Saberi schreibt in der Washington Post über die Wirkung von internationalen Menschenrechtsprotesten – eine Tatsache, an der bisweilen gezweifelt wird. Saberi war im vergangenen Jahr selbst für 100 Tage im berüchtigten Teheraner Evin-Gefängnis inhaftiert. Mittlerweile lebt und arbeitet sie wieder in den USA.
When I was incarcerated in Iran’s Evin prison last year on a trumped-up charge of espionage, I was fortunate that my case received a great deal of international attention. I was not aware of the extent of this attention until the day my interrogator allowed me to lift my blindfold to see a pile of news articles on a desk in front of me. As he read aloud the names of journalism and human rights organizations, Iranian-American groups and others that had been calling for my freedom, I realized he was trying to scare me into thinking that this outcry was bad for me. But suddenly I no longer felt so alone. Friends and strangers were standing with me, and I didn’t have to face my captors by myself anymore.
Iranian officials sometimes claim that the regime is impervious to outside pressure over its treatment of prisoners or that it reacts negatively to such attention … Some Iranian decision-makers do care what outsiders say about the Islamic Republic. If they didn’t, Iran would not have satellite television networks such as the English-language Press TV trying to spread state-sanctioned messages to international audiences. Nor would Tehran attempt to restrict journalists and censor images leaving the country.