RECENT POSTS
- Under the Stars, Obama Toasts India’s Prime Minister
- White House State Dinner – Who Made the Exclusive Guest List?
- Admiral Mike Mullen To Geneva for START Talks
- VP Biden to Indian Prime Minister: “You’re the Hottest Ticket in Town”
- FLOTUS on the State Dinner: Like a Swan, "Calm and Serene Above Water, But We're Paddling Like Mad, Going Crazy Underneath"
- White House State Dinner: The Menu, Entertainment, and Decor
- Dan Pfeiffer, White House Blogger
- Guests Begin to Arrive for White House State Dinner Festivities
- President Obama on Afghanistan Strategy: “It Is My Intention to Finish the Job”
- The Obamas Kick off their First State Visit, Welcome India's Prime Minister to the White House
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
« Previous | Main | Next »
The World Mourns Neda
June 23, 2009 10:22 AM
Her name was Neda Agha-Soltan. She was 26 and loved pop music. She was killed by the Basij and has become an icon of the resistance.
Her fiancé, Caspian Makan, spoke to Al Jazeera about the last moments of her life:
He also told the sad story to BBC Persian TV:
"She was near the area, a few streets away, from where the main protests were taking place, near the Amir-Abad area. She was with her music teacher, sitting in a car and stuck in traffic. She was feeling very tired and very hot. She got out of the car for just for a few minutes. And that's when it all happened. That's when she was shot dead. Eyewitnesses and video footage of the shooting clearly show that probably Basij paramilitaries in civilian clothing deliberately targeted her. Eyewitnesses said they clearly targeted her and she was shot in the chest.
"She passed away within a few minutes. People tried to take her to the nearest hospital, the Shariati hospital. But it was too late. We worked so hard to get the authorities to release her body. She was taken to a morgue outside Tehran. The officials from the morgue asked if they could use parts of her corpse for body transplants for medical patients. They didn't specify what exactly they intended to do. Her family agreed because they wanted to bury her as soon as possible.
"We buried her in the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran. They asked us to bury her in this section where it seemed the authorities had set aside spaces for graves for those killed during the violent clashes in Tehran last week. On Monday afternoon, we had planned to hold a memorial service at the mosque. But the authorities there and the paramilitary group, the Basij, wouldn't allow it because they were worried it would attract unwanted attention and they didn't want anymore trouble.
"The authorities are aware that everybody in Iran and throughout the whole world knows about her story. So that's why they didn't want a memorial service. They were afraid that lots people could turn up at the event. So as things stand now, we are not allowed to hold any gatherings to remember Neda."
Those last moments you can see here -- viewer discretion advised:
As the Los Angeles Times reported, her final words: "I'm burning, I'm burning!"
"Security forces urged her friends and family not to hold memorial services for her at a mosque and asked them not to speak publicly about her, associates of the family said. Authorities even asked the family to take down the black mourning banners in front of their house, aware of the potent symbol she had become."
Her singing instructor, Hamid Panahi, was with her, and told his story to the New York Times. “'We heard one gunshot, and the bullet came and hit Neda right in the chest,' he said. The shot was fired from the rooftop of a private house across the street, perhaps by a sniper, he said."
The Washington Post reports that at the family's "modest travel agency, where Agha Soltan once worked, tense relatives declined to comment. According to sources close to the family, authorities have told them not to talk to the news media. The government has cracked down hard in recent days on its most vocal opponents."
Writes the Post: "An eyewitness reported that about 70 people gathered on Monday, the third day after Agha Soltan's death, at the Niloufar mosque in the middle-class Tehran neighborhood of Abbas Abad. On the mosque's doors, a leaflet said: 'There is no commemoration here for Neda Agha Soltan.' In the Islamic republic, all mosques are under state control. The mourners, most of them dressed in black, held up posters with a picture of Agha Soltan's bloodied face during a sit-in outside the mosque because they were not allowed in.
"Some read poetry. 'Her blood was spilled unjustly!' one woman yelled.
"Soon a police colonel showed up, saying the mourners should leave.
"'Why don't you defend us?' one mourner asked. 'Why have you unleashed these attackers on us?'
"Passersby -- some of them crying -- joined in and handed out dates, a traditional custom in Iran when someone dies.
"After 10 minutes, 20 members of the Basij showed up on motorcycles and started threatening the mourners with clubs.
"The mourners quickly dispersed, taking their posters with them.
"'We will be back,' one mourner said. 'She will not be forgotten.'"
Wrote opposition candidate Mehdi Karroubi on his Web site: “A young girl, who did not have a weapon in her soft hands, or a grenade in her pocket, became a victim of thugs who are supported by a horrifying intelligence apparatus.”
-- jpt
June 23, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (49)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
dying eyes
(a song for Neda Agha-Soltan)
her eyes roll back and far to the side
she's gone, gone now, nothing left to hide
unjust, insane, unholy, fair unfair
it's neither here nor there
she was taken away by an age-old war
hope we can now see what she died for
the blood now flows from mouth and nose
somebody pressing the wound screams
but she's gone, gone now, that we should see
she's gone, gone for eternity
all now red, white, black it seems
but it's not just Neda here we can now see
(chorus)
i saw, i saw a woman die
i saw, i saw her dying eyes
i saw, i saw Neda die
i saw, i saw her dying eyes
a symbol, a message, a meaning she may be
once a woman, a daughter, a sister there to see
but now gone and never never a mother to be
and though once a danger there to somebody
and maybe somehow even now or yet to be
that's not just Neda there we can now see
(chorus)
she was often covered there, hidden, had to be
under a thumb, that chador she sometimes wore
but while dying, on her we could clearly see
sneakers, jeans, modernity
Neda now plain to see
Neda now plain to see
peace, peace be upon you, Neda
peace
peace, peace be upon you, Neda
peace
Posted by: Larry LeFever | Jul 24, 2009 8:09:57 PM
how could you be so cold-hearted? it is physically impossible to have that much blood be flowing onto the face in a "stage" you idiots. it just shows how ignorant some people are. it would take some spectacular actors to get this shot done in such a circumstance. the blood flows through the opening of the body when the heart is punctured or the lungs. this is murder, so stop being a dumb human and use your mind that was given to you
Posted by: anonymous | Jun 24, 2009 11:13:12 PM
On Wed., June 24, 2pm, ABC News radio 770 in NY stated as fact that Neda was NOT shot by Iranian security forces,
and that the murder was STAGED.
How does ABC news know this? Does ABC have enough integrity to retract their previous statement?
Why is ABC so willing to throw away their journalistic integrity? Do they think no one will notice?
Posted by: Lauren | Jun 24, 2009 12:19:35 PM
It is so sad, how could someone like the military officer killed an innocent protestor? Plus, she was a young woman. I mean, they should have warned her and gave her chance, perhaps spray water or pepper sprag her leg or something. I guess, especially like the Communist country officials, they are very crazy on their government systems. I think we can learn from one of this incidents that this world doesn't guns, weapons, or any kind of weapons of destruction. We are logical, civilized human we just need negotiation. I feel so bad for her, her fiance, her family, her community. I hate people use gun or violent.
She must had taught many of us a lesson the tragic of life, gun, and in human of certain people. I wish she has peace and forever remembered for her courage and sacrify. She was a lovely woman from what I seen in the video/pic. Whoever shot her, he or she would deserve no life in the heaven.
Posted by: Asian American | Jun 24, 2009 2:31:41 AM
I didn't knew her but now i and everyone out here feel more connected to her as she like us, was a free human being. It is heart breaking that she is no more alive. People now call her the face of ongoing protest in Iran, but nobody knows what all she wanted in her life. what was her aspirations. One of them might be to see her country Iran prosper and return to peace. She was to get married in a month or two. She was killed without any provocation, so an innocent life lost. When will we start caring for LIFE. With one's death it's not only one person dies but people associated with them die a silent death everyday.
Posted by: Nikhil | Jun 24, 2009 2:20:35 AM
when i saw her eyes as she lay there. My heart shattered into pieces. It was as if i could hear her every thought. I cannot get that image out of my head.
When will it end?
We always talk about the end. The end of the world. The end of time. The end of life. There is no such thing. Only the end of mankind. We are lost in this world that rules us with hate, politics, war and religion. The world will not come to an end. But we will, we will destroy each other and the world will still exist. We are on a path of self destruction. We solve violence with more violence and hate with more hate.
And those who seek freedom from all these things? They pay with their lives!
Neda, may you find peace where you are now. I cry for you...
Posted by: icry4uneda | Jun 23, 2009 8:47:05 PM
yes!
a thought for Neda!
she did not die in vain!
now, it's up to us the remaining living human beings to prove our worth!
Neda, rest in peace!
Posted by: novisi | Jun 23, 2009 4:44:51 PM
yes!
a thought for Neda!
may her spirit look back at us with prayer that one day all shall come to realise that we are all human beings!
Posted by: novisi | Jun 23, 2009 4:38:36 PM
I wasn't thinking, "What took you so long?"
I am only interested in seeing the Iranians succeed... and given that I have no access to State Department's actions in Iran... and that the US relationship with Iran has been a very touchy one... I don't really feel like I could get a reasonable answer to this question.
On the other hand, the haste with which people who already hate Obama and want him to fail have seized upon the crisis in Iran... not as something worth supporting in any practical way... but as an instrument to make our President appear weak... makes me doubt the earnestness.
When the GOP's policy on Iran has pretty much been in favor of war, with all the collateral damage that implies, I have a hard time swallowing this sudden outpouring of empathy.
On the whole, the question of how sternly Obama should speak against the Iranian government is a distraction. It ignores the fact that there may be real diplomatic (even covert) actions underway. And it distracts from the fact that this Iranian Revolution is entirely a homegrown phenomenon that belongs to the people of Iran, and that it would also be a tragedy if the President provoked a backlash against the demonstrators by undermining their legitimate right to representation.
Posted by: borneo | Jun 23, 2009 3:35:41 PM
Have we Americans become so sick and twisted as a people--so narrowly and viciously partisan--that we can't even pause for the moment, united in mourning at the senseless murder of yet another beautiful, innocent person by a thuggish, paranoid regime?
MUST we turn this poignant and tragic moment into a political bludgeon? Has the screaming, sneering, mean-spirited Limbaugh/Gingrich/Coulter/Fox News crowd really reduced us to this low, degraded level of cheap shots?
I thank God for a President who has the dignity and eloquence to express our shared grief and outrage, without further endangering the Iranian people by resorting to the cheap political grandstanding of demagogues like John "Bomb,bomb Iran" McCain...
Posted by: Thomas I. Ellis | Jun 23, 2009 3:30:56 PM
Borneo, "On the other hand, there are many people who hope that Neda's death might translate into victory in the United States' mid-term election."
I believe more Americans hope for a turning point in Iran, brought about by the Iranian people themselves, but see only a positive in the world offering them words of encouragement.
The only reason for this to have an effect in mid-term elections is if the majority of Americans feel this and other situations are not being handled properly by our present government. Sadly, in this situation, there is no way to separate the personal tragedy from the political possibilities.
A reporter asked Obama, with regards to his freshly crafted remark that he has been appalled and outraged at what has transpired in Iran, "What took you so long?" That is how many of us feel.
It's a little unnerving. Americans are rarely the ones asked, "Where were you? What took you so long?"
Many of us wanted a change in leadership but not a change in America.
Posted by: WhereWasThePress? | Jun 23, 2009 3:17:29 PM
They call you Nena, an angel from heaven,
here to lift our hearts
Oh how we cried to see you fall!
Just a young girl
And yet as your heart was pierced
Something pierced ours
We awoke to the reality that life is fragile
And yet so precious
Our thoughts turned to father, mother, brother, sister
We claimed you as our sister
And cried out with your father
"Be not afraid!"
Oh how we wished not to see you go
Yet in leaving us you have emboldened us
Our hearts now beat in cadence with yours
Beating with your final beats
The hopes and dreams of days to come
When oppression will cease
And we will see your eyes still open
Saying it was worth it - "I was not afraid."
Posted by: Jeff Taylor | Jun 23, 2009 3:16:27 PM
"I don't feel that Obama was very nice to you when you asked him a question. He doesn't need to tell us that he is the President of the United States. He acts like he has to keep reminding himself."
Actually Jake got a little puffed up by trying to ask 3 questions plus pointing to another reporter to push his questiion & got a gentle smack down by the pres. I'm sure he will be here to brag about it and fish for his daily blog back pats.
Surely not fodder for the haters.
Posted by: watching | Jun 23, 2009 2:05:03 PM
More likely than not she was shot by regular force rather than the Basij, who have been killing people almost exclusively with knives, having had their guns taken away a while ago.
Posted by: Flash Override | Jun 23, 2009 1:59:37 PM
I don't feel that Obama was very nice to you when you asked him a question. He doesn't need to tell us that he is the President of the United States. He acts like he has to keep reminding himself.
He is not sure who he is. He can;t answer a question without some off the wall answer that don't even comply with what was asked. What a loser.
Posted by: Keta | Jun 23, 2009 1:25:22 PM
from CBS on 6/22-Of all the possible posters of the fallen girl who has become the symbol of the Iranian uprising, the Early Show chose the one displayed here in the unmistakable style Shepard Fairey used to create his Obama poster- CBS is trying to hard to convince us that the struggles between Obama and Neda are the same.
Posted by: jaj | Jun 23, 2009 1:16:10 PM
"So now 0bama is going to have a press conference, conveniently timed at 12:30 EDT when lots of USA moms are having their lunch and catching a break with their favorite soap opera. Coincidence? No way."
Because if there's any demographic Obama needs to shore up, its East Coast women.
Let's see so far this week, the various right wing nutjobs have offered that the WH garden was faked, that Obamas ice cream trip was the part of an elaborate ruse and now the Machiavellian scheduling of a press conference.
Posted by: Ryan C | Jun 23, 2009 1:00:38 PM
WhereWasthePress?
I agree with you. It is not without political importance.
As you note, "It is a sad reality that she has become more in death. It is the type of event that can change history."
I think where the key difference is.... and where people get really indignant... is that some of us (like me) are hoping that Neda's death might actually translate into greater freedom and flourishing for the Iranian people.
On the other hand, there are many people who hope that Neda's death might translate into victory in the United States' mid-term election.
It will take a lot for me to read criticisms of Obama's alleged "inaction" as anything less than disingenuous... when they are obviously vile (i.e. criticizing him for spending time with his daughters). The fact remains that we have no idea what the state department is doing to assist the protesters.
A year ago, the best that Obama's critics could come up with as a solution to the problem in Iran was war. Now that we have softened diplomatic ties with Iran, we are seeing the greatest stride towards democracy taking place. It could be mere coincidence, but it might also have to do with some subtle changes in policy (and, perhaps, a great deal of back channel work being done under the radar or by proxy).
At this point, it is absurd to assume that our President is the evil party in all this.
The worst thing to do is to take you cues from an out of power political party in the United States that has spent the last few months struggling for its political survival by attacking the President and hoping for his failure.
Posted by: borneo | Jun 23, 2009 1:00:09 PM
"And the RIGHT wants to use her corpse as a bludgeon to attack our own President."
Terri Schiavo all over again.
The right wing is disgusting.
Posted by: Ryan C | Jun 23, 2009 12:56:29 PM
"Can't there be bipartisan agreement that Neda deserves to be honored for HER actions?"
From the article, "She was near the area, a few streets away, from where the main protests were taking place, near the Amir-Abad area. She was with her music teacher, sitting in a car and stuck in traffic. She was feeling very tired and very hot. She got out of the car for just for a few minutes. And that's when it all happened. That's when she was shot dead."
She was not actively protesting. That is what makes her death even more senseless.
Many of us can multi-task like our young President, who is known, as so snidely stated by the left, to "thrive" on multi-tasking unlike our simple former president.
We can mourn this young woman and discuss our government's, our President's reaction, action and inaction as deemed appropriate under the heading of "Political Punch".
Neda's assasination captured on Twitter and cell/camera phones and through no direct action of her own, she instantly became the face of the opposition party in Iran and around the world. We are eyewitness to history if her death becomes the turning point in Iran.
It is a sad reality that she has become more in death. It is the type of event that can change history.
It is a personal tragedy for her family and friends and it is a public tragedy and political event seen 'round the world for the rest of us and thus, we are discussing it here.
But, you know that. It is easier to try to act indignant and pretentious rather than participate in honest discourse.
Posted by: WhereWasThePress? | Jun 23, 2009 12:39:43 PM
Post a comment
