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Neda Soltan's family 'forced out of home' by Iranian authorities

Parents of young woman shot dead near protests are banned from mourning and funeral is cancelled, neighbours say

A correspondent in Tehran guardian.co.uk, 
Wednesday 24 June 2009 18.00 BST 

The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of Neda Agha Soltan out of their Tehran home after shocking images of her death were circulated around the world.

Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The police did not hand the body back to her family, her funeral was cancelled, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques, the neighbours said.

"We just know that they [the family] were forced to leave their flat," a neighbour said. The Guardian was unable to contact the family directly to confirm if they had been forced to leave.

The government is also accusing protesters of killing Soltan, describing her as a martyr of the Basij militia. Javan, a pro-government newspaper, has gone so far as to blame the recently expelled BBC correspondent, Jon Leyne, of hiring "thugs" to shoot her so he could make a documentary film.

Soltan was shot dead on Saturday evening near the scene of clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators, turning her into a symbol of the Iranian protest movement. Barack Obama spoke of the "searing image" of Soltan's dying moments at his press conference yesterday.

Amid scenes of grief in the Soltan household with her father and mother screaming, neighbours not only from their building but from others in the area streamed out to protest at her death. But the police moved in quickly to quell any public displays of grief. They arrived as soon as they found out that a friend of Soltan had come to the family flat.

In accordance with Persian tradition, the family had put up a mourning announcement and attached a black banner to the building.

But the police took them down, refusing to allow the family to show any signs of mourning. The next day they were ordered to move out. Since then, neighbours have received suspicious calls warning them not to discuss her death with anyone and not to make any protest.

A tearful middle-aged woman who was an immediate neighbour said her family had not slept for days because of the oppressive presence of the Basij militia, out in force in the area harassing people since Soltan's death.

The area in front of Soltan's house was empty today. There was no sign of black cloths, banners or mourning. Secret police patrolled the street.

"We are trembling," one neighbour said. "We are still afraid. We haven't had a peaceful time in the last days, let alone her family. Nobody was allowed to console her family, they were alone, they were under arrest and their daughter was just killed. I can't imagine how painful it was for them. Her friends came to console her family but the police didn't let them in and forced them to disperse and arrested some of them. Neda's family were not even given a quite moment to grieve."

Another man said many would have turned up to show their sympathy had it not been for the police.

"In Iran, when someone dies, neighbours visit the family and will not let them stay alone for weeks but Neda's family was forced to be alone, otherwise the whole of Iran would gather here," he said. "The government is terrible, they are even accusing pro-Mousavi people of killing Neda and have just written in their websites that Neda is a Basiji (government militia) martyr. That's ridiculous – if that's true why don't they let her family hold any funeral or ceremonies? Since the election, you are not able to trust one word from the government." A shopkeeper said he had often met Soltan, who used to come to his store.

"She was a kind, innocent girl. She treated me well and I appreciated her behaviour. I was surprised when I found out that she was killed by the riot police. I knew she was a student as she mentioned that she was going to university. She always had a nice peaceful smile and now she has been sacrificed for the government's vote-rigging in the presidential election."

Neda, young girl brutally killed in Iran, becoming symbol of rebellion

BY Helen Kennedy
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER 
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/06/21/2009-06-21_neda_young_girl_killed_in_iran.html

Updated Monday, June 22nd 2009, 7:17 AM

Punz/AP

A protestor holds up a photo of a murdered girl identified as Neda Soltani at a rally outside of the Austrian parliament building in Vienna.

Handout

A screengrab from the video (WATCH BELOW, WARNING: GRAPHIC) being widely circulated on the Internet via YouTube and Twitter.

 

 

Her name is Neda, which means "voice" in Farsi, and her death has become the central rallying cry of the Iranian rebellion.

 

The fresh-faced teenage girl killed by what appears to be a single sniper shot on the streets of Tehran Saturday is now a potent symbol for Iran's pro-democracy protesters.

Her shocking and quick death in the arms of her howling father was captured on closeup video, posted to Facebook and came to life on computer screens across the globe.

"RIP Neda, the world cries seeing your last breath," was one of a flood of messages on Twitter.

"They killed Neda, but not her voice," read another. "Neda is everyone's sister, everyone's daughter, everyone's voice for freedom," said a third.

Within hours of her death, posters of the girl's face, open-eyed and bloody, were being brandished by demonstrators in Los Angeles and New York City.

The graphic video was originally posted to Facebook by an Iranian expatriate in Holland who said it was sent to him by a friend in Tehran, a doctor who tried to save the girl.

He identified her as Neda Soltani, a 16-year-old philosophy student.

A Facebook group created to mourn her calls her "The Angel of Iran."

In Tehran on Sunday, the streets were quiet for the first time in a week, but the city was bracing for more unrest today when thousands are expected to mourn the girl's death.

"To protest against lies and fraud is your right," opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi told his followers in a statement.

"Be hopeful in exercising your rights and do not allow those who try to instill fear in you to make you angry."

An ABC reporter in Dubai said she was told the girl was rapidly buried to forestall a funeral rally.

In the holy city of Qom, turmoil was reported among the ruling clerics. There were reports that some dissident clerics were trying to replace the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The regime is under threat after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a suspiciously huge landslide in the June 12 election, sparking accusations of vote rigging and days of mass protests.

Saturday's brutal crackdown, in which at least a dozen people were killed and hundreds wounded, hardened opposition to the supreme leader as well as Ahmadinejad.

In apparent retaliation, the daughter of powerful former President Hashemi Rafsanjani and four of his other relatives were arrested and held for a day, according to state TV.

State radio said Monday that 457 people were arrested in the clashes.

Rafsanjani's kin were held for a day for their own protection, but it was seen in most quarters as a clear warning to curb his support for Mousavi.

Rafsanjani, 75, is chairman of the Assembly of Experts that has the power to remove the supreme leader and is Mousavi's most powerful ally.

Reporters Without Borders said 33 Iranian journalists and bloggers have been arrested even as the foreign press was barred from the streets .

"The regime has been visibly shaken by its own population. That is why the media have become a priority target," Reporters Without Borders said.

State TV blamed "terrorists" for the street violence.

BBC Persia aired extraordinary video of a crowd of stone-throwing youths on Saturday slowly advancing on a cadre of well-armed police with riot shields, finally forcing the security forces to turn tail and run.

BBC's lead reporter in Tehran was subsequently told he had 24 hours to leave the country.

A Life.com magazine photographer was missing, and a Newsweek reporter arrested.

Germany called for a revote, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the crackdown on peaceful protest "inexcusable."

As the Neda video ignited fury and tears, several new Twitter accounts were opened dedicated solely to insisting the video was fake. The posters were roundly shouted down as tools of the Iranian regime.

One of the many other videos of the Tehran protests uploaded to YouTube captured the girl in the last moments of her life, standing on a curb with her silver-haired father, watching the protesters go by.

In a country where martyrdom is a matter of great import and mourning marches often mix with protests, the girl's very public death has the potential to be a galvanizing event.




http://www.iranian.com/main/video/2009/jun/salame-akhar-neda