Posted on 06/22/2009 2:19:48 PM PDT by lewisglad
Her dark eyes are haunting. They reveal the intimate agony of a brutal death, but Neda Soltan died publicly -- for the world to see.
I am deeply stirred by the screenshot from a YouTube video showing Neda's eyes as she lay dying Saturday on a Tehran street.
A highly connected world allows us to experience things as they happen and that, believe it or not, makes us accountable for those events. They are no longer foreign news items posted on a ticker that does not force us to engage.
What is happening in Iran binds us as humans. What is happening does not allow us to be dislocated and remote. It demands our very human recognition.
It has not been independently confirmed who killed Neda, who was 26 years old. But Iranians who posted the video say the Basij, the pro-government paramilitary force, shot her, The Associated Press reports.
Nico Pitney quotes a BBC Persia interview that apparently features Neda's fiance, Kasamin Makan.
He says that Neda was not even a part of the protests when it happened. He also is quoted as saying:
"Neda's goal was not Moussavi or Ahmadinejad -- it was her country and was important for her to fight for this goal. She had said many times that if she had lost her life or been shot in the heart, which indeed (is) what happened, it was important for her to continue in this path," he said.
Whatever her political views actually were, Neda's face now is emblematic of a revolution. Memorial pages have been created for her on Facebook. Twitter is flooded with posts about her and the YouTube video depicting her death is a graphic, heart-wrenching recording.
This open display of anger and pain and protest coursing through social networking platforms connects us to the human cost of upholding the core values of Iran and any country. Every person has the right to judge a government freely and civilly. Elections should be free and without the terror of reprisal. Protesters should be respected, not disabled by tear gas or felled by bullets.
On Monday, the AP reported that a family member says Neda's family was prevented from having a funeral for her. However, an Iranian blogger, according to The New York Times, has identified Neda's grave. A photo on TwitPic shows flowers strewn across a mound of dirt. But I won't forget Neda's eyes.
Are we even sure she was killed? The palis are infamous for their staged PR stunts. The protesters could have learned sumthin from them. The video of her on the ground looking at the camera seemed odd to me.
So overwhelming and enormously sad.
The World cannot avoid it, but the Administration can.
I won’t forget them either. The pupils were fixed and dilated and somebody was doing chest compressions. You knew she was probably already gone...there was that ‘i am no longer here’ gaze.Very haunting. I hope these people succeed in overthrowing the 7th century mindset of the mullah’s running that historic nation of Iran.
0b0z0 can’t see past the ice-cream cone he’s shoving down his throat.
The blood running out of her nostrils and into her opened left eye was quite the trick, wasn’t it.
The difference is that because the Israeli’s are civilized atrocious behavior needs to be INVENTED for them.
Are you suggesting there is a shortage of actual atrocious and brutal actions on the part of the mullah’s of Iran such that some needed to be invented?
I just joined the Facebook group(s).
yeah........looked real to me, she never blinked or closed her eyes......
I believe it was not CPR being performed but rather an attempt to control bleeding.......when the blood could not spurt out her chest, it poured out her mouth.
and anyone notice the positioning of her arms?
she was dying.
I remember one time at the beach, when a friend poured blood into my open eyes. It was real hard to keep my eyes open, not blink, and stare into space at the same time. But it was fun and totally worth it.
No. I’m just asking if we are sure this particular one wasn’t staged.
You won’t find me neutral like Obama in this. I want to see the mullahs swinging from lamp posts.
It’s sad to see that people have to die for their right to have their vote counted. The people of Iran suffered from dictators all over their complete history. For me personally it is a shame, that the only democratic elected iranian gouvernment ever (in 1951) was overthrown by the UK and the US in 1952 who installed the shah regime. The people of iran hoped that the revolution of 1979 would restore their right to vote. But instead they’ve got the next totalitarian regime. I hope that the “Sea of green” will bring iran a true democracy.
As do I. I would even build the lamp post.
In the coming days I think a single woman laying shot and dying will be the least of the brutality the Iranian people will be suffering.
There will be no shortage of real brutality, thus my disbelief in the need to stage any.
If it’s put on then the acting and special effects are better than most anything coming out of Hollywood. Pali productions are very amateurish by comparison.
Especially when they drop the casket and the kid climbs back in. LOL
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the whole thing was a brilliant fake? Such a hack would definitely surpass John Grierson's famous 1940 film edit at Hitler's expense. It would be even better if it led to the mullahs' Ceausescuization for a crime they did not commit!
The Lesser United States being constructed under this Administration is no longer a leading nation in the world, so it may not matter.
Yes it would be. I’d prefer it were fake, and she was in hiding, not dead. And I would also prefer the mullahs swinging from lamp posts for their 30 years of atrocious anti-American activities, amongst their other crimes.
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