A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

What Does Roxana Saberi's Freeing Mean?

I didn't post yesterday about the release of Roxana Saberi mostly because I didn't have an immediate reaction other than, of course, relief that a journalist had been freed by a repressive regime. The New York Times has asked a number of experts for their opinions and since they seem to cover the spectrum pretty well, I'm going to refer you to them instead of simply parroting something others are saying. I do recognize, of course, that in the midst of an Iranian electoral campaign, every move means something. What precisely it means, and which factions were responsible for what (remember, Ahmadinejad signaled a while back that he thought she should be freed, so stereotyping who's behind what isn't wise) may take some time to discern.

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