Alejandro@Oxford

Since Saturday, I’ve been liveblogging the latest events about the unrest in Iran initiated after the declaration of the results of the elections of June 12. Saturday June 20 was a special day. The day before, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Khamenei, said in the Friday prayer that the election results were fair. He demanded all protests to stop and warn of a violent crackdown if not. Against the wishes of the highest authority in Iran, many people left their homes on Saturday to demonstrate against the government, and for the first time, against the regime and Khatami. As I reported during the day, demonstrators took the streets facing thousands of policemen and Basiji occupying cities all around Iran. Thanks to mobile phones, video cameras, and the Internet, we can witness the demonstrations and the clashes between people, the security forces of the state, and the infamous Basiji.

A turning point in the uprising is the video of a young girl dying in her father’s arms after being shot in the heart. At 6.54 in my liveblog I linked to this video on youtube, after @iranbaan, a girl in Iran, twittered about it. A bit later, the Iranian in the Netherlands who uploaded the video to YouTube, Hamed R posted the video on his Facebook page (the video has now been removed from facebook). The girl was watching the demonstrations with her music instructor – in blue striped polo shirt next to her, originally it was thought he was her father – when she was shot. A friend of Hamed’s, a doctor send the video to Hamed and his name is kept anonymous for security reasons; he was near when it happened, he ran to take care of the girl, but she died in less than 2 minutes. Meanwhile, a friend of his was filming.  This is the text that accompanies the youtube video:

Basij shots to death a young woman in Tehran’s Saturday June 20th protests At 19:05 June 20th Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know.

The video spread virally through the Internet, but there was no name people could give to this girl. On his blog, Tristan Mendes France says that it he who asked Hamed about the name of the girl. Hamed replied to him:

Her name is Neda. Tristan twittered her name, and in minutes thousands of people were spreading the name on the net. In twitter the hashtag #neda appeared, and became the most  twittered. According to twittertrends,  it is currently the third most twittered term after Tehran and #iranelection.

Neda in farsi means voice, call. Western media is now reporting ( one , two )  that she is becoming the symbol of the revolt. With a shot in her heart, she became a shattered voice that will give life to a thousand voices, to the voice of Iran. There is also now a Facebook page. The question is, are the people in Iran getting the news of her death and really seeing it as a symbol of their uprising? So far, we mostly get the impressions of people from outside, it is very difficult to know what people inside know, beyond a small minority that are connected to the Internet.

BBC Persia has interviewed Neda’s fiance. Nico in Huffington Post has got a translated transcript from readers:

Kasamin Makan, Neda Agha-Setan’s fiancee, was interviewed by BBC Persia, noting that Neda would have turned 27 this year. “Neda’s goal was not Mousavi or Ahmadinejad, it was her country and was important for her to fight for this goal. She had said many times that if she had lost her life or been shot in the heart, which indeed what happened, it was important for her to continue in this path,” he said.

Considering her young age she has taught a lesson to us all.

About the day of the incident, Mr. Makan said: “When the clashes were occurring, Neda was far away from the demonstrations, she was in one of the side alleys near Amir Abad. Thirsty and tired or being cooped up for about an hour in the car in heavy traffic with her music instructor, she finally gets out of the car and, based on the pictures sent in by the people, armed forces in civilian clothes and the Basiji targeted and shot her in the heart.”

“It was over in a matter of minutes, the Shariati Hospital was nearby, the people around her tried to bring her to the emergency room by car, but before that could even happen she died in her instructor’s arms.”

Mr. Makan added: “We got her body back finally yesterday with some diffculties. Of course, her body was not at the Tehran Coroner but at a one outside of Tehran. The medical examiners

wanted parts of her body, including a portion of her femoral bone but the chief medical examiner would not say why and no explanations were ever given.”

“Finally the family consented just so they could get her body back as soon as possible, since just this issue could have resulted in delaying the reception of the body. We buried the body in a small area in the Zahra Cemetery in the late afternoon of 31 Khordad. Also, they had brought in other people who had been killed in the protests so it seemed that the whole event was scheduled to be such.”

About payment for releasing the remains, Mr. Makan had this to say: “No specific amount has been paid at this time, although hospitals, clinics, surgeons and medical examiners have been ordered by the Iranian security services, based on various orders, not to list ‘bullet wound’ as the cause of death on the death certificate in order to prevent the families from filing international complaints in the future. I haven’t seen the release notice of Neda’s remains yet, but I will obtain it from her father in the coming days.”

Mr. Makan regarding government ban of memorial service for Neda Agha Setan said: “We were going to hold her memorial Monday 1st of Tir at 2:30 PM at a mosque at Sharyati street north of Seyed Khandan. But Basijis and mosque officials refused our request for her memorial service so to avoid further public confrontation and instability. They knew that Neda was an died innocently, and people in Iran and the international community are informed of that fact. So they decided to avoid a situation where a mass rally would take place. In any way, we do not have permission for a memorial service for now.”

However, many eye witnesses told BBC Persia that a large gathering took place with the intention of performing a memorial service at Al Reza Mosque at Nilofar square in Tehran. But the security forces intervened by throwing people out of the mosque and intervening with the service.

Mr. Makan also commented on fake pictures of videos claiming to be Neda at various sites:”I was looking at some sites including ‘iReport’. There was a picture of a young woman with green signs from previous calm demonstrations and had claimed it was Neda before being shot. These pictures have no relation to the event. It seems that Mr. Mousavi’s supporters are trying to portray Neda as one of his supporters. This is not so. Neda was incredibly close to me and she was never supportive of either two groups. Neda wanted freedom and freedom for all.”

BBC Farsi tried to contact Neda Agha-Sultan’s other family members but was told by a close relative of hers that, for reasons of their own, the Agha Sultan family could grant an interview.