A year ago around this time, Iran was heaving in blood and battle. Among all the chaos on the streets, a young woman was killed in broad daylight in front of the world. The doctor near the scene who tried to save her was accused of being an accomplice in her murder and had to flee the country and live in clandestine exile. Her real killer though was never found as no attempt was made to find him. As if he accomplished a mission and like any other assassin vanished into the thin air and retired under the protection of those who carried out the policy of “fire to kill” peaceful demonstrators and beat up torture, rape, and mutilate them if captured.
Tomorrow is the anniversary of Neda Agha Soltan’s death. I happened to be one of the first people who received the video. The sender asked me “what on earth is this?” Bewildered and in a state of total shock I replied: “can’t be true!”
A short while later the world watched that video and followed the tragedy of Neda Agha Soltan’s murder. The killing of Neda had widespread consequences for the Iranian regime on the one hand and the Iranian opposition on the other. I had been the subject of many songs, music, articles, interviews and writings. Immediately, the brutal murder of Neda turned into the symbol, the emblem and the flag of a collective protest which was meant to be non-violent and peaceful. Millions around the world saw her on their screens over and over again and thousands of Iranians outside and inside put a mask on their faces, decorated with Neda’s beautiful portrait telling the world “I am Neda”. Songs were written in her memory, stories were written in her honour, a film was made in her honour and her family became the honour of a nation that was marching on a non-violently demanding its “vote”.
A year on, the Iranian regime, corrupt more than ever, brutal more than ever, deceitful more than ever and unpopular more than ever has tried to cover Neda’s murder in a cloud of ridiculous and unfounded stories in order to divert attention from not only her murder but the other murders that had been carried out before and those that followed; Sohrfab and Kianush and others on the streets and the Kahrizak murders.
In memory of Neda, I wrote the following piece on Iranianwomenuk blog a year ago.
“Did they silence Iran by killing its Neda (voice)?”
On the anniversary of the murder of Neda Agha Soltan let’s remind ourselves that we have come a long way since then and have to go a long way before we can reclaim our country from the course of transgression into the abyss of darkness into the road to freedom, democracy, and secularism along the line with the civilised world.
Let’s remind ourselves that Neda and Sohrab and Kianush and thousands before them were not murdered in vain. They were the price Iran paid for the noble cause of freedom.
