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Neda And The Power of Video
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Please
let the world know.
It was only 40-second video, about as long as it took for
Neda to die on the street in Iran.
But it was a video that within hours would be seen around the world.
Her car had been stuck in traffic on a street on the
afternoon of June 20, 2009.
The traffic jam resulted from the peaceful
protest over the highly questionable election results in Iran -- results that
are keeping the ruling political and religious factions in power.
Neda had nothing to do with the protests and up to that time the protests had been non-violent. It was hot that day, traffic was stalled, and Neda had simply gotten out to of the car get some air. A single shot rang out. The bullet hit her in the chest.
Although there just happened to be a doctor standing next to her on the street at the time, he could do nothing. Neda bled to death in less than a minute from a single bullet in the chest.
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The killer was reportedly a member of Basij, assigned to quell anti-government protests.
Censorship of all anti-government stories and images prevailed and the Internet was being monitored and specific sites blocked. Reporters were being locked up and their laptops confiscated.
Had it not been for the
two-megabyte cell phone video of what happened, the
story of Neda's death might have been suppressed.
The man who made the video
of her death on the street that day knew it would be difficult and dangerous to try to
evade Iran's censors, so he e-mailed the two-megabyte video to a friend
in the Netherlands.
The friend sent it to the Voice of America, The Guardian newspaper in London, and five on-line friends in Europe with the message, Please let the world know.
One of those friends, an Iranian expatriate, who knew only too well what was going on in his country, posted the video on Facebook, while fighting back tears.
Copies of the video spread almost instantly to YouTube and then around the world by CNN.
Iran's Ahmadinejad government would not allow the usual
funeral service of Neda. They went so far as to issue a ban
on collective prayers for her in mosques and they threatened her family
should they allow a gathering to mourn her death.
When people put flowers on the spot where she died, pro-government forces reportedly dumped garbage on them.
Even so, that 40-second video made Neda something of a world-wide icon for the protest.
Account sources include, the BBC, The New York Times, CNN, The Los Angeles Times, Wikipedia, and witness interviews. Photos of Neda were taken by her fiancée.
This account was written in early July, 2009. After that date tensions in Iraq escalated and many people were arrested. Not only was their fate unknown, but wives, husbands and family have no word on where they are or what their future will be.
© 2009, All Rights Reserved
