UPDATE: It is now being reported that her name was Neda Agha Soltan.

The girl in the video below is called Neda Agha Soltan. born 1982, she was a philosophy student. Neda's body has been given back to her family by the police under the condition that there is a quick and disrete / secret / low profile funeral. The Mosques in Tehran are under pressure not to accept the funeral proceedings for Neda. Already the original ceremony at Masjed Al-Reza Mosque located on Niloufar Square was cancelled. It was scheduled for 4.30pm tomorrow. The man with the striped shirt is her father.

The indiscriminate killing of a young woman named Neda in the streets of Tehran today [Saturday]. What we know of her is from this caption to the video seen below the fold, and an entry on Mir Hossein Mousavi's Facebook page which describes her father watching his daughter die.

CNN has been running a snippet from the YouTube video with her face pixilated, they say out of respect, just another faceless and nameless Iranian shot dead in the street by her government.

STRONG WARNING: The video below is graphic.

YouTube

امروز، سی خرداد، ساعت 7 بعد از ظهر این دختر جوان توسط لباس شخصی ها کشته شد

Basij shots to death a young woman in Tehran's Saturday June 20th protests

At 19:05 June 20th
Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st.

A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes.

The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St.

The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me.
Please let the world know.

Facebook

Faranak Zarrinabadi at 6:18pm June 20
Khameneie!You called yourself,the father of all orphans of Iran-Iraq war,but here you made a father witness the martyrdom of his daughter,in minutes,in his arms.You took away a mans,but Iran's daughter.He didnt believe it at first,saying:Neda,dont be afraid,dont be afraid..then when blood covered her face,he came to and cried:Neda,stay..Neda,stay... Read More!....The doctor who was there was helpless as the shot was in the chest.My dear Neda,you are now loved by all more than ever,my tears are nonstop for you,but you died for Iran to be free and Im proud of you,may you rest in peace in heaven.And you Khameneie,you will certainly pay for this and definitely go to hell!

(Nicole: Out of respect for C&L readers who may not want to subject themselves (or others around them) to disturbing images, I've moved the header photo still of Neda to below the fold. Our apologies to those who felt it too graphic for the front page.)

Continue reading »

Subtitled version of "INJA KOJAST INJA IRAN AST SARZAMINE MANO TO" (link below) - a woman speaking about the state of her country while filming the rooftop shouting of "Allah-o Akbar" in Iran on Friday June 19th.

Iran, the whole world is watching.

original link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oM6l9PO6Yo

The subtitles in the video above are a little different, and in my opinion, a little better than those below, which I copied from NIACblog. Both are enormously moving. Tomorrow is indeed a day of destiny.

Today Friday 18 June 1388 [2009]
Tomorrow Saturday is very important; Day of destiny.
Tonight the screams of “God is great” [Allah-o Akbar]
is louder than on any other night.

Where is this place?
Where is this place that all paths are closed? All doors are shut?
Where is this place that no one helps us?

Where is this place that we shout out our words with only silence?
Where is this place?
Where is this place that its people’s only call is to God?
Where is this place that its cry of Allah-o Akbar ["God is Great"]
Grows louder and louder every minute?

Every day I wait to see if at night
The cries of “God is Great” grows louder or not.
I tremble as I hear them getting louder and louder.
I do not know if God trembles too or not.

Where is this place that we the innocents are stuck in [imprisoned]?
Where is this place that no one can help us?
where is this place that we are only shouting out our words with silence?
Where is this place that the youth are killed and people stand in the street and pray?
They stand in the blood and pray.
Where is this place that people are called [vagrants] trouble makers?

Where is this place?
Do you want me to tell you?
It is Iran.
It is my home land and your home land.
It is Iran.

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

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More video from today in Tehran. This gives a much better representation of the scope and magnitude of it all. And also the possible repercussions when millions go to the streets in protest.

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Hundreds of thousands are now marching in the streets of Iran against the election results. They're headed toward Revolution Square, perhaps literally.

UPDATE: The BBC is now saying the rally was 1-2 million. The video above was from earlier. The picture below was from later today when the crowds really began to swell.

(Sky News) Tens of thousands of supporters of Iran's opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, have defied a ban to attend a rally in Tehran after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a landslide victory in the presidential elections. Sky's Tim Marshall reports

I don't know what to say. Isn't rioting in the streets the appropriate reaction when your country is taken over through election fraud? What's the alternative, to reward theft? We've already seen what that did here!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has defended his "completely free" re-election as Iran's president, amid violent clashes on the streets over claims of election fraud.

Mr Ahmadinejad condemned the outside world for "psychological warfare" against Iranians during the election.

Thousands have protested against the result, burning barricades on the streets of Tehran and clashing with police, who responded with tear gas.

Reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi urged his supporters to avoid violence.

Speaking on national television, Mr Ahmadinejad praised the Iranian people for choosing to "look toward the future" rather than returning to the past.

"This is a great victory at a time and condition when the whole material, political and propaganda facilities outside of Iran and sometimes... inside Iran, were total mobilised against our people," he said.

He blamed "foreign media" for instigating a "full-fledged fight against our people".

"Nearly 40 million people took part in a totally free election," he said.

However, the official result, which gave Mr Ahmadinejad a resounding victory - 63% of the vote against 34% for Mr Mousavi - brought the worst violence seen in Tehran for a decade, correspondents said.

The BBC's John Simpson saw secret policemen being attacked and chased away by protesters, which he says is extremely rare.

Some of the protesters in Tehran wore Mr Mousavi's campaign colour of green and chanted "Down with the dictator", news agencies report.