A shot that touched the heart of all but those responsible for her death

Martin Fletcher:

She was invoked by President Obama in the White House. The exiled son of Iran’s late Shah said that he carried her picture in his left breast pocket alongside those of his daughters. She was extolled in newspapers and on television bulletins from Australia to America, from Russia to Dubai.

The extraordinarily potent story of Neda Salehi Agha Soltan, the 26-year-old Iranian woman shot dead during Saturday’s demonstrations in Tehran, continued to wash around the world yesterday — touching everyone except the rulers of her own country, who did their level best to suppress it.

They forbade her family from holding a wake in a Tehran mosque. They ordered them to bury her without fanfare or eulogy. They ordered them not to speak about her in public, and reportedly even told them to remove the black mourning ribbons outside their house. The state-controlled media mentioned Miss Soltan only to suggest that her death was staged.

She was the daughter of a government worker from Tehran, the second of three children. She loved music and travelling and hoped to be a tour guide.

Though loyal to the Islamic Republic she was outraged by the apparent rigging of the presidential election. She started going to the demonstrations. Ignoring the entreaties of friends, she went to Saturday’s protests with her music teacher and two others but got stuck in traffic.

She stepped out of the car for some air, a gunshot rang out and Miss Soltan collapsed. Blood bubbled up through her mouth from the wound in her chest. Her last words were: “I’m burning.” Her body was put into a passing car which fought its way through the traffic. By the time she reached Shariati hospital it was too late.

Hamid Panahi, the music teacher, defied the regime’s gagging order. “They know me. They know where I am. They can come and get me whenever they want,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “When they kill an innocent child this is not justice. This is not religion. In no way is this acceptable.”

...

She was shot in the heart by the orders of a government that has no heart. That can be demonstrated not only by the order to kill defenseless women, but the refusal to allow others to mourn her death. The only justice would be the fall of this wicked regime.