Iranians celebrate Fathers Day on the Birthday of the 1st Shiite Imam, which is the 13th day of Rajab. This year Iranians will celebrate Fathers Day on July 6th of the Gregorian calendar.
But it is Fathers Day in America as I write this, and as a father I am haunted by the video of Neda, dying in her fathers arms as he crys out "Neda, stay with me. Neda stay with me!"
More.
The images of Neda's dying moments are absolutely horrific, but her true beauty still shines through the blood and chaos that we see her in.
We rightly focus on Neda in those final moments, shocked at the brutality which led to this awful scene. But I have a beautiful 12 year old daughter (Neda is reported to have been 16 years old), and I can't help but feel a very small part of the agony of that father, holding his own beautiful child in his arms as her life blood streams onto the ground. The tragedy is just unspeakable for this man.
I may not have Iranian citizenship, but I am human, and I am a father. I think in a moment such as this, I can say without the least bit of hyperbole, that we are all Iranian now.
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UPDATE: From the comments: Neda was born in 1982, making her 26 or 27 years old. Also she may have been at the protest with her professor, rather than her father.
That said, I am leaving my original as is with this correction, because that is exactly how I felt given the information I had at the time.