Monday 22 June 2009

Neda - A call for freedom


The video showing the death of this women, Neda Agha-Soltan, after she was shot in Iran on Saturday has been seen around the world.

The footage, posted on YouTube, has circulated on the Internet and has appeared on some mainstream media. The woman's name, Neda, means call or voice in Persian and many view her as a martyr. She has become a symbol of the protestors and many hold candles or pictures of her whilst demonstating.

Neda has been nicknamed online 'the angel of the protestors' and a website has been established for people to leave tributes to her. The site, weareallneda.com, already has several hundred messages in memory of Neda. One person simply posted "why?why?why?why?why?why?" and another said "RIP Neda, such a tragic waste."

Today saw smaller scale demonstrations in Tehran amid threats of a severe crackdown by the powerful Revolutionary Guard. Mir Hossein Mousavi, former presidential candidate, has called for the protests to continue and has announced that he us prepared for martrydom. Reports from Tehran say that a national strike is planned for Tuesday. One twitter user posted "Sorry no business today - we're on strike". Other reports say that on Monday night protestors again gathered in rooftops and balconies shouting Allah o Ahkbar and death to the dictator.

Heavy restrictions are still in place on foreign media preventing them from reporting on demonstrations. As a result, social media sites, such as twitter, YouTube and flickr, retain their importance as the main source of information from Iran.

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