June 22, 2009
Iran Online - Graphic Imagery Further Stirs Unrest
Neda, the young Iranian woman shot over the weekend during protests in Iran, has heightened the rallying cry from the opposition.
The coverage from Iran continues to pour in from citizen journalists filming and uploading videos online. The video of the shooting and killing of 26 year old Neda Agha-Soltan was uploaded on YouTube and Facebook Saturday with the following explanation:
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.
Individuals posting the video say the woman was shot by a member of the pro-government Basij militia, but that has not been verified by reporters due to the barring of foreign news organizations by the Iranian Government and the fact that the government has not acknowledged the death.
According to the wikipedia page, "The graphic videos were posted on the Internet, and her name quickly became a rallying cry for the opposition.Neda means "voice" or "calling" in Persian, and she has been referred to as the "voice of Iran" and "a symbol of pro-democracy protesters battering the Islamic regime" in the world."
According to NBC, although less than a minute long, the footage appears to capture the woman's death moments after she was shot at a protest and is "a powerful example of citizens' ability to document events inside Iran despite government restrictions on foreign media and Internet and phone lines."
Twitter and Facebook have been used to organize Iranian citizens in an effort to commemorate Neda Soltani. On Facebook, demonstrators were asked by to gather in the center of of the Iranian capital at 4:00 pm local time and Twitter entries announced that Neda Soltani was buried at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, and denied a public funeral by government authorities.
Posted by Buzz Webster at June 22, 2009 05:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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