Utopia Talk - Politics - RIP Neda Agha-Soltan

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Utopia Talk / Politics / RIP Neda Agha-Soltan

mexicantornado
Member Mon Jun 22 16:07:40
Since there isn't a thread specifically for this girl and as I wouldn't want to shanghai any other thread and this deserves it's own thread. Here is her obituary. Apparently she was never an activist but went to the protests because of her own personal sense of outrage over the election results.

"Reporting from Tehran -- The first word came from abroad. An aunt in the United States called her Saturday in a panic. "Don't go out into the streets, Golshad," she told her. "They're killing people."

The relative proceeded to describe a video, airing on exile television channels that are jammed in Iran, in which a young woman is shown bleeding to death as her companion calls out, "Neda! Neda!"

A dark premonition swept over Golshad, who asked that her real name not be published. She began calling the cellphone and home number of her friend Neda Agha-Soltan who had gone to the chaotic demonstration with a group of friends, but Neda didn't answer.

At midnight, as the city continued to smolder, Golshad drove to the Agha-Soltan residence in the eastern Tehran Pars section of the capital.

As she heard the cries and wails and praising of God reverberating from the house, she crumpled, knowing that her worst fears were true.

"Neda! Neda!" the 25-year-old cried out. "What will I do?"

Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, was shot dead Saturday evening near the scene of clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators who allege rampant vote-count fraud in the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The jittery cellphone video footage of her bleeding on the street has turned "Neda" into an international symbol of the protest movement that ignited in the aftermath of the June 12 voting. To those who knew and loved Neda, she was far more than an icon. She was a daughter, sister and friend, a music and travel lover, a beautiful young woman in the prime of her life.

"She was a person full of joy," said her music teacher and close friend Hamid Panahi, who was among the mourners at her family home on Sunday, awaiting word of her burial. "She was a beam of light. I'm so sorry. I was so hopeful for this woman."

Security forces urged Neda's friends and family not to hold memorial services for her at a mosque and asked them not to speak publicly about her, associates of the family said. Authorities even asked the family to take down the black mourning banners in front of their house, aware of the potent symbol she has become.

But some insisted on speaking out anyway, hoping to make sure the world would not forget her.Neda Agha-Soltan was born in Tehran, they said, to a father who worked for the government and a mother who was a housewife. They were a family of modest means, part of the country's emerging middle class who built their lives in rapidly developing neighborhoods on the eastern and western outskirts of the city.

Like many in her neighborhood, Neda was loyal to the country's Islamic roots and traditional values, friends say, but also curious about the outside world, which is easily accessed through satellite television, the Internet and occasional trips abroad.

The second of three children, she studied Islamic philosophy at a branch of Tehran's Azad University, until deciding to pursue a career in the tourism industry. She took private classes to become a tour guide, including Turkish language courses, friends said, hoping to some day lead groups of Iranians on trips abroad.

Travel was her passion, and with her friends she saved up enough money for package tours to Dubai, Turkey and Thailand. Two months ago, on a trip to Turkey, she relaxed along the beaches of Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast.

She loved music, especially Persian pop, and was taking piano classes, according to Panahi, who is in his 50s, and other friends. She was also an accomplished singer, they said.

But she was never an activist, they added, and she began attending the mass protests only because of a personal sense of outrage over the election results.

Her parents and others told her it would be dangerous to go to Saturday's march, said Golshad. On Friday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had warned in his weekly prayer sermon that demonstrators would be responsible for any violence that broke out. Even Golshad stayed away. At 3:30 the two friends spoke.

"I told her, 'Neda, don't go,' " she recalled, heaving with sobs.

But she was as stubborn as she was honest, Golshad said, and she ended up going anyway.

"She said, 'Don't worry. It's just one bullet and its over.' "

"She couldn't stand the injustice of it all," Panahi said. "All she wanted was the proper vote of the people to be counted."

Her friends say Panahi, Neda and two others were stuck in traffic on Karegar Street, east of Tehran's Azadi Square, on their way to the demonstration sometime after 6:30 p.m. After stepping out of the car to get some fresh air and crane their necks over the jumble of cars, Panahi heard a crack from the distance. Within a blink of the eye, he realized Neda had collapsed to the ground.

"We were stuck in traffic and we got out and stood to watch, and without her throwing a rock or anything they shot her," he said. "It was just one bullet."

Blood poured out of the right side of her chest and began bubbling out of her mouth and nose as her lungs filled up.

"I'm burning, I'm burning!" he recalled her saying, her final words.

Those nearby gathered around. A doctor tried to help, Panahi said, telling him to put his palm over the wound and apply pressure. A driver coming from the other direction urged the crowd to put her into his car. A frantic search for a hospital followed. They took a wrong turn down a dead end and switched her limp body to another car.

Along the way, protesters and ordinary people screamed at other drivers to clear a route in the snarled traffic.

The medical staff made a heroic effort to rush her to the operating room, but it was too late. She was dead by the time they arrived at the emergency room of Shariati Hospital, Panahi said.

"This is a crime that's not in support of the government," he said. "This is a crime against humanity."

Iranian authorities have strenuously denied that police were using lethal force to quell the protest. During tours of the riot scene before, during and after the worst of the melee, there were no signs of security officials using guns to quash the protest, which is considered illegal.

The prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into the killing of "several people" in Saturday's violence and arrested one "armed terrorist," the website of Iran's Press TV broadcaster announced. At least 13 people were killed in Saturday's rioting.

"Policemen are not authorized to use weapons against people," said Tehran Police Chief Azizollah Rajabzadeh, according to Press TV. "They are trained to only use antiriot tools to keep the people out of harm's way."

The government has suggested loyalists to the exiled, outlawed opposition group Mujahedin Khalq Organization may bear responsibility for the killings. But family members and friends suspect that zealous pro-government paramilitaries, the Basijis or the group Ansar-e-Hezbollah, might have been responsible. Panahi said witnesses at the scene said the shooter was not a police officer but among a group of plainclothes security officials or militiamen lurking in the area.

On Sunday at the Agha-Soltan residence, friends and relatives came in droves, weeping and bent over, clutching one another. A steady murmur of sobs and wails emanated from the apartment.

Mascara streamed down cheeks of the women, some in sweeping black chadors and others in shapely designer mini-coats and sunglasses.

The men's eyes were sore and bloodshot. Two helped a distraught young man walk along the hallway, one of her two brothers, someone said.

"She died full of love," Golshad said.

The relatives and friends piled into minivans for the hour-long trek to Tehran's Beshesht Zahra cemetery, where she was buried. Her loved ones were outraged by the authorities' order not to eulogize her, to loudly sing her praises and mourn her loss. But they were too afraid and distraught to speak out, except for Panahi, who said he had nothing more to lose.

"They know me," he said. "They know where I am. They can come and get me whenever they want. My time has gone. We have to think about the young people."

Neda, he said, was smart and loving. She had a mischievous streak, gentling teasing her friends and causing them to laugh. She was passionate about life and meant no one any harm, they said. In the election unrest, friends found in her an unexpected daring, a willingness to take risks for her beliefs.

"For pursuing her goals, she didn't use rocks or clubs," said Panahi. "She wanted to show with her presence that, 'I'm here. I also voted. And my vote wasn't counted.' It was a very peaceful act of protest, without any violence."

As to the person or persons responsible for her death, they will not be forgiven, he said. "When they kill an innocent child, this is not justice. This is not religion. In no way is this acceptable," he said. "And I'm certain that the one who shot her will not get a pass from God.""

http://www...-2009jun23,0,366975,full.story

If she were to have posted here I imagine she would have been called a liberal twat numerous times. Still she would not have deserved a bullet through the heart.

And here is the maverick giving a eulogy for her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irvwOHZS6mk&feature=player_embedded

Y2A
Member Mon Jun 22 16:14:30
The Iranian government's response:

http://www...-Freedom-Neda-Agha-Soltan.html

Iran bans prayers for 'Angel of Freedom' Neda Agha Soltan

Iran's regime has issued a ban on memorials for a young woman whose death has become the focal point of protests against the clerical regime.

by Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Published: 5:21PM BST 22 Jun 2009

Neda Agha Soltan, 27, was dubbed the Angel of Freedom after a video which appeared to show her being shot by a government sniper was posted on the internet.

Graphic scenes show Neda â?? her name means "the call" â?? walking with her father among demonstrators, then separately when she was shot as well as attempts to save her life.

Online posters of the woman covered in blood quickly emerged, included one modelled on a prominent image of Barack Obama during the last US presidential campaign.

Some online posts speculated the image would rank alongside that of the unnamed man standing in front of a tank in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the summary execution of a Vietnamese Communist prisoner by Colonel Nugyen Ngoc Loan in 1968.

Footage was posted on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and was viewed by tens of thousands. Messages of sympathy and outrage flooded the internet following the posting of the videos.

The Iranian authorities have now sent out a circular to mosques banning collective prayers for the woman.

Hot Rod
Member Mon Jun 22 16:49:02

R.I.P. young one.

Honest Politician
Member Mon Jun 22 16:52:41
R.I.P.

President Bush
Member Mon Jun 22 16:57:33
RIP

Asgard
Member Mon Jun 22 17:00:27
Where's Paramount to tell us all this was a covert Mossad operation?

RIP. The video of her death is saddening.

pillz
Member Mon Jun 22 17:02:23
This was no doubt an attempt by Mossad to bring down the wrath of the Iran people on their government.

Asgard
Member Mon Jun 22 17:04:08
Camera guy standing near by is also a mossad agent?

President Bush
Member Mon Jun 22 17:07:57
heh

President Bush
Member Mon Jun 22 17:08:23
Woops, wrong thread

Paramount
Member Mon Jun 22 17:12:06
"RIP. The video of her death is saddening. "

So, how come you don't say this about the thousands of young children that has over the years been shot and killed, and bombed by missiles, bulldozed, and white phosphored to death in Palestine by the Israeli occupation regime?

Asgard
Member Mon Jun 22 17:16:10
because... there are no close-up videos of their death, perhaps?

Rugian
Member Mon Jun 22 17:17:13
"because... there are no close-up videos of their death, perhaps?"

So basically, the lesson here is that governments should strive to restrict technology use as much as possible?

Asgard
Member Mon Jun 22 17:18:19
1 - no, because evidently that doesn't work
2 - wtf makes you think I say that?

Paramount
Member Mon Jun 22 17:20:55
So, it's only saddening that kids and youths gets killed when it's being caught on tape? Ok!

aspire
Member Mon Jun 22 17:22:49
Pretty sad you haave to justify your people by comparing them to israel isn't it?

Hot Rod
Member Mon Jun 22 17:28:50

Why does every Tribute Thread end up like this,

Rugian already has a thread condemning the young woman.

Asgard
Member Mon Jun 22 17:30:49
"So, it's only saddening that kids and youths gets killed when it's being caught on tape? Ok! "

Are you mentally retarded? (yes)

I said the VIDEO is saddening.
If you can find VIDEOS of children dying from israeli white pospherous shells, then those VIDEOS would also be saddening.

Let's make a difference here shall we? I didn't say her DEATH was saddening (it is, but I didn't say it). I said the VIDEO is saddening... because, well, there is a video, and it's a sad one. Now, since there are no videos of chidren dying from israeli white pospherous shells, then I can't say that these videos are saddening. Yes, their DEATHS are saddening. No, their VIDEOS are not, because they don't exist.

now go off yourself and dumb your sorry body in a fucking volcano, you stupid fag.

Paramount
Member Mon Jun 22 17:35:25
lol

Asgard
Member Mon Jun 22 17:36:36
fucking idiot.

President Bush
Member Mon Jun 22 17:43:06
get a room you two.

Mavl
Member Mon Jun 22 22:36:30
She died full of love, taking part in a riot.

Real Fred
Member Mon Jun 22 22:42:41
"So, it's only saddening that kids and youths gets killed when it's being caught on tape? Ok! "

LOL

Mavl
Member Mon Jun 22 22:46:09
"because... there are no close-up videos of their death, perhaps?"

http://www.themodernreligion.com/jihad/sniper.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5KvHB7_k-U

show deleted posts

mexicantornado Member	Mon Jun 22 16:07:40 Since there isn't a thread specifically for this girl and as I wouldn't want to shanghai any other thread and this deserves it's own thread. Here is her obituary. Apparently she was never an activist but went to the protests because of her own personal sense of outrage over the election results. "Reporting from Tehran -- The first word came from abroad. An aunt in the United States called her Saturday in a panic. "Don't go out into the streets, Golshad," she told her. "They're killing people." The relative proceeded to describe a video, airing on exile television channels that are jammed in Iran, in which a young woman is shown bleeding to death as her companion calls out, "Neda! Neda!" A dark premonition swept over Golshad, who asked that her real name not be published. She began calling the cellphone and home number of her friend Neda Agha-Soltan who had gone to the chaotic demonstration with a group of friends, but Neda didn't answer. At midnight, as the city continued to smolder, Golshad drove to the Agha-Soltan residence in the eastern Tehran Pars section of the capital. As she heard the cries and wails and praising of God reverberating from the house, she crumpled, knowing that her worst fears were true. "Neda! Neda!" the 25-year-old cried out. "What will I do?" Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, was shot dead Saturday evening near the scene of clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators who allege rampant vote-count fraud in the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The jittery cellphone video footage of her bleeding on the street has turned "Neda" into an international symbol of the protest movement that ignited in the aftermath of the June 12 voting. To those who knew and loved Neda, she was far more than an icon. She was a daughter, sister and friend, a music and travel lover, a beautiful young woman in the prime of her life. "She was a person full of joy," said her music teacher and close friend Hamid Panahi, who was among the mourners at her family home on Sunday, awaiting word of her burial. "She was a beam of light. I'm so sorry. I was so hopeful for this woman." Security forces urged Neda's friends and family not to hold memorial services for her at a mosque and asked them not to speak publicly about her, associates of the family said. Authorities even asked the family to take down the black mourning banners in front of their house, aware of the potent symbol she has become. But some insisted on speaking out anyway, hoping to make sure the world would not forget her.Neda Agha-Soltan was born in Tehran, they said, to a father who worked for the government and a mother who was a housewife. They were a family of modest means, part of the country's emerging middle class who built their lives in rapidly developing neighborhoods on the eastern and western outskirts of the city. Like many in her neighborhood, Neda was loyal to the country's Islamic roots and traditional values, friends say, but also curious about the outside world, which is easily accessed through satellite television, the Internet and occasional trips abroad. The second of three children, she studied Islamic philosophy at a branch of Tehran's Azad University, until deciding to pursue a career in the tourism industry. She took private classes to become a tour guide, including Turkish language courses, friends said, hoping to some day lead groups of Iranians on trips abroad. Travel was her passion, and with her friends she saved up enough money for package tours to Dubai, Turkey and Thailand. Two months ago, on a trip to Turkey, she relaxed along the beaches of Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast. She loved music, especially Persian pop, and was taking piano classes, according to Panahi, who is in his 50s, and other friends. She was also an accomplished singer, they said. But she was never an activist, they added, and she began attending the mass protests only because of a personal sense of outrage over the election results. Her parents and others told her it would be dangerous to go to Saturday's march, said Golshad. On Friday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had warned in his weekly prayer sermon that demonstrators would be responsible for any violence that broke out. Even Golshad stayed away. At 3:30 the two friends spoke. "I told her, 'Neda, don't go,' " she recalled, heaving with sobs. But she was as stubborn as she was honest, Golshad said, and she ended up going anyway. "She said, 'Don't worry. It's just one bullet and its over.' " "She couldn't stand the injustice of it all," Panahi said. "All she wanted was the proper vote of the people to be counted." Her friends say Panahi, Neda and two others were stuck in traffic on Karegar Street, east of Tehran's Azadi Square, on their way to the demonstration sometime after 6:30 p.m. After stepping out of the car to get some fresh air and crane their necks over the jumble of cars, Panahi heard a crack from the distance. Within a blink of the eye, he realized Neda had collapsed to the ground. "We were stuck in traffic and we got out and stood to watch, and without her throwing a rock or anything they shot her," he said. "It was just one bullet." Blood poured out of the right side of her chest and began bubbling out of her mouth and nose as her lungs filled up. "I'm burning, I'm burning!" he recalled her saying, her final words. Those nearby gathered around. A doctor tried to help, Panahi said, telling him to put his palm over the wound and apply pressure. A driver coming from the other direction urged the crowd to put her into his car. A frantic search for a hospital followed. They took a wrong turn down a dead end and switched her limp body to another car. Along the way, protesters and ordinary people screamed at other drivers to clear a route in the snarled traffic. The medical staff made a heroic effort to rush her to the operating room, but it was too late. She was dead by the time they arrived at the emergency room of Shariati Hospital, Panahi said. "This is a crime that's not in support of the government," he said. "This is a crime against humanity." Iranian authorities have strenuously denied that police were using lethal force to quell the protest. During tours of the riot scene before, during and after the worst of the melee, there were no signs of security officials using guns to quash the protest, which is considered illegal. The prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into the killing of "several people" in Saturday's violence and arrested one "armed terrorist," the website of Iran's Press TV broadcaster announced. At least 13 people were killed in Saturday's rioting. "Policemen are not authorized to use weapons against people," said Tehran Police Chief Azizollah Rajabzadeh, according to Press TV. "They are trained to only use antiriot tools to keep the people out of harm's way." The government has suggested loyalists to the exiled, outlawed opposition group Mujahedin Khalq Organization may bear responsibility for the killings. But family members and friends suspect that zealous pro-government paramilitaries, the Basijis or the group Ansar-e-Hezbollah, might have been responsible. Panahi said witnesses at the scene said the shooter was not a police officer but among a group of plainclothes security officials or militiamen lurking in the area. On Sunday at the Agha-Soltan residence, friends and relatives came in droves, weeping and bent over, clutching one another. A steady murmur of sobs and wails emanated from the apartment. Mascara streamed down cheeks of the women, some in sweeping black chadors and others in shapely designer mini-coats and sunglasses. The men's eyes were sore and bloodshot. Two helped a distraught young man walk along the hallway, one of her two brothers, someone said. "She died full of love," Golshad said. The relatives and friends piled into minivans for the hour-long trek to Tehran's Beshesht Zahra cemetery, where she was buried. Her loved ones were outraged by the authorities' order not to eulogize her, to loudly sing her praises and mourn her loss. But they were too afraid and distraught to speak out, except for Panahi, who said he had nothing more to lose. "They know me," he said. "They know where I am. They can come and get me whenever they want. My time has gone. We have to think about the young people." Neda, he said, was smart and loving. She had a mischievous streak, gentling teasing her friends and causing them to laugh. She was passionate about life and meant no one any harm, they said. In the election unrest, friends found in her an unexpected daring, a willingness to take risks for her beliefs. "For pursuing her goals, she didn't use rocks or clubs," said Panahi. "She wanted to show with her presence that, 'I'm here. I also voted. And my vote wasn't counted.' It was a very peaceful act of protest, without any violence." As to the person or persons responsible for her death, they will not be forgiven, he said. "When they kill an innocent child, this is not justice. This is not religion. In no way is this acceptable," he said. "And I'm certain that the one who shot her will not get a pass from God."" http://www...-2009jun23,0,366975,full.story If she were to have posted here I imagine she would have been called a liberal twat numerous times. Still she would not have deserved a bullet through the heart. And here is the maverick giving a eulogy for her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irvwOHZS6mk&feature=player_embedded
Y2A Member	Mon Jun 22 16:14:30 The Iranian government's response: http://www...-Freedom-Neda-Agha-Soltan.html Iran bans prayers for 'Angel of Freedom' Neda Agha Soltan Iran's regime has issued a ban on memorials for a young woman whose death has become the focal point of protests against the clerical regime. by Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent Published: 5:21PM BST 22 Jun 2009 Neda Agha Soltan, 27, was dubbed the Angel of Freedom after a video which appeared to show her being shot by a government sniper was posted on the internet. Graphic scenes show Neda â?? her name means "the call" â?? walking with her father among demonstrators, then separately when she was shot as well as attempts to save her life. Online posters of the woman covered in blood quickly emerged, included one modelled on a prominent image of Barack Obama during the last US presidential campaign. Some online posts speculated the image would rank alongside that of the unnamed man standing in front of a tank in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the summary execution of a Vietnamese Communist prisoner by Colonel Nugyen Ngoc Loan in 1968. Footage was posted on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and was viewed by tens of thousands. Messages of sympathy and outrage flooded the internet following the posting of the videos. The Iranian authorities have now sent out a circular to mosques banning collective prayers for the woman.
Hot Rod Member	Mon Jun 22 16:49:02 R.I.P. young one.
Honest Politician Member	Mon Jun 22 16:52:41 R.I.P.
President Bush Member	Mon Jun 22 16:57:33 RIP
Asgard Member	Mon Jun 22 17:00:27 Where's Paramount to tell us all this was a covert Mossad operation? RIP. The video of her death is saddening.
pillz Member	Mon Jun 22 17:02:23 This was no doubt an attempt by Mossad to bring down the wrath of the Iran people on their government.
Asgard Member	Mon Jun 22 17:04:08 Camera guy standing near by is also a mossad agent?
President Bush Member	Mon Jun 22 17:07:57 heh
President Bush Member	Mon Jun 22 17:08:23 Woops, wrong thread
Paramount Member	Mon Jun 22 17:12:06 "RIP. The video of her death is saddening. " So, how come you don't say this about the thousands of young children that has over the years been shot and killed, and bombed by missiles, bulldozed, and white phosphored to death in Palestine by the Israeli occupation regime?
Asgard Member	Mon Jun 22 17:16:10 because... there are no close-up videos of their death, perhaps?
Rugian Member	Mon Jun 22 17:17:13 "because... there are no close-up videos of their death, perhaps?" So basically, the lesson here is that governments should strive to restrict technology use as much as possible?
Asgard Member	Mon Jun 22 17:18:19 1 - no, because evidently that doesn't work 2 - wtf makes you think I say that?
Paramount Member	Mon Jun 22 17:20:55 So, it's only saddening that kids and youths gets killed when it's being caught on tape? Ok!
aspire Member	Mon Jun 22 17:22:49 Pretty sad you haave to justify your people by comparing them to israel isn't it?
Hot Rod Member	Mon Jun 22 17:28:50 Why does every Tribute Thread end up like this, Rugian already has a thread condemning the young woman.
Asgard Member	Mon Jun 22 17:30:49 "So, it's only saddening that kids and youths gets killed when it's being caught on tape? Ok! " Are you mentally retarded? (yes) I said the VIDEO is saddening. If you can find VIDEOS of children dying from israeli white pospherous shells, then those VIDEOS would also be saddening. Let's make a difference here shall we? I didn't say her DEATH was saddening (it is, but I didn't say it). I said the VIDEO is saddening... because, well, there is a video, and it's a sad one. Now, since there are no videos of chidren dying from israeli white pospherous shells, then I can't say that these videos are saddening. Yes, their DEATHS are saddening. No, their VIDEOS are not, because they don't exist. now go off yourself and dumb your sorry body in a fucking volcano, you stupid fag.
Paramount Member	Mon Jun 22 17:35:25 lol
Asgard Member	Mon Jun 22 17:36:36 fucking idiot.
President Bush Member	Mon Jun 22 17:43:06 get a room you two.
Mavl Member	Mon Jun 22 22:36:30 She died full of love, taking part in a riot.
Real Fred Member	Mon Jun 22 22:42:41 "So, it's only saddening that kids and youths gets killed when it's being caught on tape? Ok! " LOL
Mavl Member	Mon Jun 22 22:46:09 "because... there are no close-up videos of their death, perhaps?" http://www.themodernreligion.com/jihad/sniper.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5KvHB7_k-U
	show deleted posts

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