Iran is a beautiful country and I couldn't be more proud of my people. Writing this post is bringing tears to my eyes. For the past few days I saw video after video of my brothers and sisters slaughtered in the streets. More than anything I saw the courage of my friends insisting on peacefully demanding justice in the face of violence. And I learned to be brave for them.
Iranians went out to protest when they knew they might die. This is not a stupid frivolous act. This is a very concious decision. The young woman who writes in her blog that she will listen to all her favorite music today because she doesn't know whether she will be alive tomorrow, is not stupid. She is strong, she knows the risk she is taking and she is still wiling to do it, and she knows why she is doing it.
I saw photos of Neda dying on the street. I can't see the video. You all should. I don't need to. Neda was a 27 year old woman, a university student of philosophy. And she had come out to protest with one of her professors. She was shot by a government thug militia f***er on a motorcycle right in the heart. She died within minutes.
It breaks my heart.
It crushes me and turns me into a ball of darkness and despair.
Most US media reported (incorrectly) that Neda was "a 16-year old philosophy student who was standing next to her father". The level of incompetence is unbelievable. Neda wasn't a 16 year old girl, she was a full grown woman who did not want to stay home and let a bunch of thugs roam the streets. She came out to peacefully insist on her presence in the streets that belong to her, to be present so they know she is there and she is not ok with what's happening.
The government made Neda's family bury her body only if they do it hastily, without telling people, and with the presence of security forces. They did not allow them to have a memorial service. They told ALL the mosques in Tehran that they are not allowed to let Neda's family hold a memorial service there.
Meanwhile the conservatives are using her death for their political gain, and the muslim world stays quiet and watches us get killed. For shame. For shame. For shame.
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I'm so sorry. My heart hurts too.
We need to be extremely wary of the exploitation of Neda Agha-Soltani's murder and life by any political force in or out of Iran. The reduction of women to symbols, icons, or figureheads is, in the words of Bram Dijkstra, a form of "oppression through exaltation." The oppression of women is often used to justify colonialism and militarism. Where were the concerns for women's lives in Iran BEFORE Neda's murder at the hands of the state? Why are women only useful to politicians when they are dead?
It's precisely because Neda was a young, beautiful woman in the prime of her life that she is so effective as a symbol. If she were "merely" just another man protesting in the streets, you can bet fewer people would care.
To say that "women are only useful to politicians when they are dead," shows ignorance of the election that took place in Iran. Mousavi's wife, Dr. Zahra Rahnavard, a renowned author and political scientist, played a prominent role in Mousavi's campaign.
That said, Neda's death is tragic, and whether anyone likes it or not, poignantly illustrates the sacrifice that many protesters have made and the real danger that faces them when they go out int the streets to protest this corrupt government. I hope this will not all take place in vain.
Yes, the only thing you can hope is that it (Neda's murder, the violence in general) will be a catalyst for better things. I don't think that's disrespectful to anyone's memory.
I think other readers and you, Roja, might find this article interesting. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/19-11
It was written by an Iranian exile, about why she boycotted the election, and how things in Iran may have slightly improved if Mousavi had become the president, but nothing would really change until the Ayatollah is no long in power.
I'd certainly like to know the opinions of others about what she has to say.
Thanks for the link!
Sometimes I don't really have words. But I want you to know that I appreciate this post. And even though some voices might seem silent for now, the world is watching.
I'm sorry.
"...and the muslim world stays quiet and watches us get killed. For shame..."
Quiet or worse. I'm sorry and angry, because I can already imagine how a couple of Iranian immigrants and their self-proclaimed liberal friends I know IRL are reacting. To paraphrase:
"The foreign press, and Iranians airing our dirty laundry where non-Iranians can see it, are trying to make Iran look bad to get ready for an invasion a la Iraq!" [one even accused Persepolis before seeing the movie, and a recent Womanist Muslings blog post reminded me I'm not alone in wanting not just the most-privileged of a minority to speak up]
"If you saw anything criticizing sexism in Iran on the web, are you sure it wasn't American or Iranian-American expat propaganda?" [this one's from someone who heard about FGM and immediately accused Amnesty International of encouraging imperialism before she learned what FGM actually is and realized it's not anti-Iranian to criticize it]
"Of course the government has problems but there's an outside threat" [a la Bush's "if you're not with us you're against us"]
"When a poor man is dying because he can't go to the doctor, who cares about 'human rights'?!" [a la lower-income American conservatives saying "when I don't have a job and health insurance who cares about immigrants' civil rights?!"]
"The protesters are just provoking the police to get photo ops" [wait a minute, "protesting" as in throwing rocks or "protesting" as in wearing an iPod where a gangster on the same bus can see it?]
"How would you expect the U.S. government to have treated protesters denying Bush's victory like this in 2000 or 2004?" [that would depend on how they acted, of course!]
"Ahadmenijad's for the poor, anyone who has Internet access in Iran must be rich and spoiled instead of poor or working-class or lower-middle-class" [this from someone who always prefers Democratic candidates to the Republicans who call Democrats "limousine liberals"]
"I liked when that scholar who doesn't like the theocracy said he was still tempted to vote for Ahadmenijad out of disliking the other candidates" [remember white feminists tempted to vote for Sarah Palin via John McCain shortly after Hillary Clinton lost the primary?]
"Don't read news articles about Iran on the internet or store stuff about Iran on your hard drive, the government will see it" [my hard drive isn't open to the internet, thank you very much, and if I sent this complainer a link to [I had to remove this 3rd URL to get the comment through] Roja Bandari's recent blog entry he'd get mad at me instead of reading it]
Wow. That's not how my Iranian immigrant friends are reacting. Not at all. I can't even imagine them reacting like that.
These are older friends of the family, so maybe it's a generation gap? Also, after hearing this other stuff of theirs no wonder I haven't mentioned Neda to them.
They're liberal about everything else but talk about the native progressive oppositions to "Third World" ultraconservatives the way stereotypical rednecks talk about Obama and Obama's voters (including their own Democratic-voting selves!). o_O