Neda Agha-Soltan, the best-known name among those who have died in Iran’s anti-regime street protests, has been named Person of the Year by The Times of London.
Names like Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner, Angela Merkel and Barack Obama were tossed around as the editors of The Times and the newspaper’s writers tried to choose someone whose actions changed the world. These financial gurus and world leaders were unable to get the unanimous vote that Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, received.
Neda, a philosophy undergraduate who switched to a music degree, did not go to the polls to vote for a presidential candidate on June 12, 2009. But eight days after the election, Neda and her music teacher joined a huge demonstration in Tehran. Her family and fiancé asked her to stay home, but she would not.
“Even if a bullet goes through my heart it’s not important,” Neda told her fiancé, Caspian Makan, reported The Times. “What we’re fighting for is more important. When it comes to taking our stolen rights back we should not hesitate. Everyone is responsible. Each person leaves a footprint in this world.”
Neda certainly has left an impression. Almost immediately after she was shot, a spectator used his cell phone to record fellow demonstrators trying to save her life. This video was posted on YouTube and, as of December 29, had been viewed 745,106 times. Iran’s opposition has held up images of her bloodied face and her uninjured face alongside signs decrying Ahmadi-nejad’s presidency and the Islamic regime.
Crowds of people wearing T-shirts that screamed “NEDA—Nothing Except Democracy Acceptable” have gathered around Iranian embassies.
She transcended the narrow confines of religion, nationality and ideology. She evoked almost universal empathy,” wrote The Times in naming her Person of the Year.
The Iranian regime, the paper said, felt so threatened by Neda’s rallying power that they promised Neda’s parents a pension as long as they promised to say Neda was a “martyr” killed by foreign agents. Iranian hardliners have insisted Neda’s death was “staged” to denigrate the regime. They insist the foreign media have fabricated the Neda story for their propaganda purposes.
Neda’s mother, Hajar Rostami Motlagh, shared her outrage with The Times.
“Neda died for her country, not so that I could get a monthly income from the Martyrs Foundation,” she said. “If these officials say Neda was a martyr, why do they keep wiping off the word ‘martyr’ in red which people write on her gravestone? Even if they give the world to me, I will never accept the offer.”
The Times wrote that Neda “is a powerful symbol of one of the great events for which 2009 will be remembered.”
*Printed in the International Iran Times
