Neda
Today is one year since the death of Neda. HBO's recent documentary For Neda covered the events and the aftermath. You can watch it in its entirety at YouTube,
or download it directly from the site.
(Wikipedia) The footage of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan (Persian: ندا آقا سلطان - Nedā Āġā Soltān; January 23, 1982 – June 20, 2009) drew international attention after she was killed during the 2009 Iranian election protests. Her death was captured on video by bystanders and broadcast over the Internet and the video became a rallying point for the reformist opposition. It was described as "probably the most widely witnessed death in human history". Nedā (ندا) is a word used in Persian to mean "voice", "calling," or "divine message," and she has been referred to as the "voice of Iran." Her death became iconic in the struggle of Iranian protesters against what they said was the fraudulent election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The video above is by Amnesty International for their site Neda Speaks. Music by The Airborne Toxic Event.
Neda Agha-Soltan, whose brutal murder at the hands of the Iranian regime during the protests in Tehran last year, has become a symbol of human rights the world over.
We believe that the viral video of Neda's death was a sea change in political power in the world. It was the first viral video to change the course of history, a symbol that the power of broadcasting is no longer simply in the hands of governments and corporations, but in the hands of people. It is in the hands of anyone with a cell phone camera and an internet connection. It is in your hands right now.
Iranian state-run television would have never broadcast the footage of Neda's death. It took a person with a cel-phone camera and an internet connection to do that. This is a new era and a new type of democratic power.
That said, there is also something about Neda herself. About the simplicity of her request and the violence of the response her government gave her. She represents the most fundamental decency of the human spirit standing in the face of the most base corruption of that spirit. All she wanted was for her vote to be counted. For that, she was shot through the heart in the street in broad daylight holding a sign that said simply "freedom."
Many others died that week and more were wrongfully imprisoned, beaten, tortured and executed in the year since. Some still sit in jail cells. These are people we do not know and we will never meet. But we have to let them know that we stand with them. That we admire their courage and will support their struggle.
There are a lot of us. We need each other, and we need your help.
On the day of her death, the the last phone call Neda made before she was shot was to her mother. Her mother begged her to come home since everyone knew there were people being killed in the streets.
Neda said, "If I don't go, who will?"
This is the question we pose.
If we don't raise our voices, who will?
Join us.
The world is watching. The world is filming.
The revolution will be televised.
I will never get that video out of my head (the original).
there are now thousands of Iranian baby girls named Neda.
if you have HBO. It is really moving, and hopefully will keep the movement alive.
"What? Me worry??"...Alfred E Newman
if another rightwinger tries to tell me Obama should have done more I will scream.
under Bush and Cheney and GOP led congress and courts we were heading towards a theocratic police state.
in four days it'll be one year anniversary for THE ONE, and therefore wall to wall coverage was needed, drowning out this and other things that really mattered
that the CIA/Mossad was behind Neda's murder...away from any demonstrations and in front of several video cameras!
And just because Neda's "fiance" went to Israel to meet Peres recently, then appeared on Israeli television...so what?!
http://www.presstv.com/classic/detail.aspx?id...
He has a right to visit any foreign dignitary he wants. Iran isn't the boss of him.
God knows the U.S. and Israel had nothing to profit from Neda's murder!
It only makes sense that Iran would want the whole world to think THEY murdered her in cold blood in front of multiple video cameras!
It all makes perfect sense to me.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
I regard these "see how barbaric they are" propaganda tools frequently employed by this nation (which trains people for assassinations and mass-murder) with great skepticism.
Like the "boy who cried wolf", the U.S. has lost all credibility (many would say it lost it a long time ago) when it comes to humanitarian issues. Having lost all basic credibility and trust, its humanitarian tear-jerking shows come across as deeply disingenuous.
want you to understand something. There was nothing particularly unique about how she died, or how her government would have suppressed it if not for the fact that it was caught on tape by others.
The United Kingdom is, one would think, a great deal removed from political strife that we see in Iran.
But Ian Tomlinson, a citizen of the UK, was minding his own business, when he was assaulted by riot police, thrown to the ground and beaten. He died.
Mysteriously, for the country with the most CCTV cameras in the world, all the footage of the incident disappeared.
With nothing to contradict them, the Metropolitan police claimed that Ian had been assaulted by G20 protesters. That the police moved in to assist him, and while assisting him, the evil protesters hurled bricks and garbage at them.
It was just luck, that the truth came out. If it hadn't been for an investment banker from New York, who was in London at the time and happened to capture the assault on video, the truth may never have come out. He was in the airport ready to fly home, when he saw the news and realised he might have evidence on the matter in his possession.
Dr Freddy Patel, performed the autopsy, and stated Ian had died of a heart attack. This was a lie, one of several Patel has performed for the police. He has since been struck off for this sort of misconduct. A second independent autopsy correctly pointed out that Ian died of abdominal haemorrhaging.
Neda died a horrible death. But by focusing so much on the brutality of the regime which caused her death, we run the risk of neglecting the brutality of our own regimes. And bizarrely, if we want to make a change in the world, we stand a better chance of changing the country we live in, than a country like Iran which is thousands of miles away.
So yes, remember Neda, and the way she died. But also remember, there's nothing uniquely Iranian about her murder, the attempts at coverup, police and government culpability, and the ability of bystanders with video cameras to make a difference.
There's a lot of Neda's in this violent world and we need to sit back and reflect at the evil that currently is manifesting itself around the globe. Reflecting, thinking and plotting at how best to strike back at the snakes whose venomous political ideologies are put into motion (by crooked judges and politicians) while innocent people are being bitten and struck down by the greedy pigs that only a brilliant writer like George Orwell in his book Animal Farm could have envisioned.
We must strike back! No ifs, and or buts. Our survival depends on an absolute transition from apathy and lethargy to one of total action.
Neda and innocent peaceful citizens of the world that have been assassinated by the powers that be need to be held accountable in front of a world court.
But, alas, peace is but a distant memory of a foolish child that grew up believing that world harmony was within reach in a new age. But the new age has brought nothing but misery and suffering to the majority of peace loving people.
Heard on Democracy Now yesterday that at the same time the President of the US was bemoaning her death, our drones were taking out civilians.
How ironic.
iran had a secular regime in the 1950's, before we overthrew their government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_cou...
for the oil.
no CIA backed coup, no Shah, no Islamic revolution; and now, we have them who are ready to do it all over again.
the great evil is unrestrained "free market" capitalism, this is what causes these problems; until the disease is treated, not just the symptoms, expect the body politics rapid demise.
I saw the hbo documentary a week or so ago. The cover ups that were tried to explain her death infuriated me so much. But, what if anything can we really do, I mean stuff like that happens all over the world. It truly depresses me how there are so many evil lieing bastards in this world. It's like what Bill Hicks (and Carlin) said years ago..."did you ever notice who it is we kill: Ghandi, MLK, Medger Evers, Malcom X, Jesus...and let the demons run amok."
And by the way if you haven't read THE SHOCK DOCTRINE yet please do.
Peace love and pitbulls...
Objective observers and pollsters from around the world predicted a victory by Ahmadinejad and his ministers. There was not a significant amount of electoral fraud perpetrated by any party that would have affected the outcome of that election.
That said, it is an oppressive government, and one hopes that democracy will some day prevail in that part of the world. But the outside agents who orchestrated and fed the protests with false propaganda have as much blood on their hands as the government that put down the revolt.
Neda Soltan is as much a symbol of subversive politics for financial gain as she is a symbol of oppression and tyranny. May she have peace in whatever lies beyond.
People coop the death and misfortune of others for their political movements. Neda wasn't a protester, but all the protesters used her very public death for their purposes. As far as I can tell, she had nothing to do with them.
Let's remember the idea of the 'stolen election' is a western idea not supported by the facts.
I find it very interesting that the "Twitter Revolution" did all its news blurbs in English, instead of the Farsi the country actually speaks.
And what a great song. My band recorded a song for Neda, as well. She's an inspiration.
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