a grim moment

Neda Agha-Soltan, 26 year old Iranian civilian, was killed in Tehran just days ago. A rather gory youtube video of her death has been circulated on the internet and the woman is being held as a martyr and symbol of the riots going on in Iran against Ahmadenijad and the Ayatollah. The government will not allow her family to mourn her publicly and they have suppressed any public memorial efforts in the country, but her name is being spread on the internet like wildfire in brush.

It's always upsetting to me to see innocent blood shed like this. The woman was an innocent bystander, someone just trying to take part in freedoms that should be granted to every individual, and now she's just a memory, albeit a very fervent one. This is the reason I love being a part of the Western hemisphere, having the ability to blog as I like, wear what I like, listen to what I like; and it is also the reason why I regret not having as powerful a voice as I would like. People in this country can be so passionate about things, many of them insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and yet issues like the political strife, economic suffering, and antidevelopment schemes embedded in the very fabric of so many nations' culture, to wholly unnoticed. Women are life. Women exude and produce and create life even in the dryest, dankest, most dejected nooks of this planet. Why should we NOT be allowed to speak? Why do they try so hard to suppress us? I think the fact that regardless, we persevere, continue and succeed speaks volumes for itself, despite the silence that is so often forced upon us.

A woman called Hana posted a comment on Mr. Karroubi’s Web site: “I am alive but my sister was killed. She wanted the wind to blow into her hair; she wanted to be free; she wanted to hold her head high up and say: I am Iranian. My sister died because there is no life left; my sister died because there is no end to tyranny.”

Stay, Neda —

Look at this city

At the shaken foundations of palaces,

The height of Tehran’s maple trees,

They call us “dust,” and if so

Let us sully the air for the oppressor

Don’t go, Neda

-----New York Times

REST IN PEACE, NEDA




img src: NEW YORK TIMES