Iran's Angel

"Neda: Angel of Freedom."

'Neda' death video steps up pressure on Iran over protests

June 23, 2009 - 7:08AM

A video of a blood-drenched young woman, purportedly killed in the Tehran protests, has become an internet symbol of the demonstrations and heightened pressure on Iran in its battle with foreign media.

The video, showing blood pouring from the nose and mouth of the young woman, was placed online on Saturday, June 20, and has since been viewed hundreds of thousands of times around the world. So far, she has only been identified on the internet as Neda.

International media have taken pictures from the film which has inspired an avalanche of blog and Twitter comment, mainly against Iran's hardline government.

Angel of Iran

Later on Monday at a press conference in Washington, the son of the late Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, produced an image of the slain protester from his pocket alongside pictures of his family.

"I have added her (Neda) to the list of my daughters. She is now forever in my pocket," the former crown prince of Iran told AFP, fighting back tears.

The film reportedly shows Neda moments after she is hit in the chest by a shot while watching the protests on Saturday with her father on a Tehran street.

Bystanders desperately tend to the woman who wears jeans, a black jacket and an Islamic headscarf. Her eyes roll back as blood spreads across her face. People around her scream and a white-haired man desperately tells her: "Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid!"

There have been mass protests in Tehran against the disputed president election victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The people who originally posted the video on YouTube and Facebook said Neda was shot by a pro-government militia member.

That information, like the fate and the identity of the young woman in the video, cannot be independently verified.

Iranian state TV has said 10 people were killed and more than 100 injured during demonstrations in Tehran on Saturday, the eighth day of the political crisis.

Photos of Neda have been used at demonstrations around the world: from Istanbul to Los Angeles.

A number of Twitter users have been tinting their profile pictures green in solidarity with Iranians in recent days.

A Facebook page entitled "Angel of Iran" has been set up to honour her, bloggers and Twitter messages have called her: "Neda: Angel of Freedom."

More/Video & Links

http://www.smh.com.au/world/neda-death-video-steps-up-pressure-on-iran-over-protests-20090623-cu7j.html

=

Both sides in Iran claim to represent Islam

Which is why any genuine substantial change appears unlikely. Nonetheless, events in Iran bear close watching -- after all, the Shah ran a relatively secular state, and there is still a considerable number of proponents of such a state in...

Full article: <http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/026688.php>

Iran's Revolutionary Guards threaten protestors with "a resolution and revolutionary confrontation with the Guards, Basij and other security forces and disciplinary forces"

It's all a conspiracy, you see. And it's such a large one that they can't quite pinpoint who's behind it. Zionists? Americans? The British? Anything to dodge the truth. "Iran Revolutionary Guard threatens protesters," by Ali Akbar Dareini and Jim...

Full article: <http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/026682.php>