"Even if a bullet goes through my heart, it's not important," said Soltan, whose last moments were captured on video and spread worldwide. "What we're fighting for is more important. When it comes to taking our stolen rights back we should not hesitate. Everyone is responsible. Each person leaves a footprint in this world."
http://www.upi.com/...
Brilliant quote by Neda Soltan, the young woman who symbolizes bravery and steadfastness to the protesters in Iran who are now trying to overthrow this tyrannical, brutal, Islamic Iranian regime. Neda personified bravery and she now symbolizes the ultimate sacrifice given for a great cause, in this case, Freedom. She will live forever in Iranian legend and folklore. Poems , songs, and books will be written about her. Her act of defiance has reverberated throughout the entire world, that's why The Times of London has picked her as their person of the year. And it's a great choice, a magnificent choice to honor her sacrifice in this way.
As protests heat up again in Iran, as many protesters are demanding the overthrow of the entire Islamic system, not just the current tyrants, The Times of London has put front and center a tragic event, a heart wrenching event, the murder of Neda Soltan, to remind us all again of the high stakes involved, the passion involved, the risks involved and of the ultimate aims involved. Freedom.
Six months on, it is obvious that Ms Soltan did not die in vain. The manner of her death, and the regime’s response, has shredded what little legitimacy it had left. She helped to inspire an opposition movement that is now led by her generation, which a systematic campaign of arrests, show trials, beatings, torture and security force violence has failed to crush, and whose courage and defiance has won the admiration of the world.
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Her name was invoked by Barack Obama, Gordon Brown and other world leaders. Outside Iranian embassies huge crowds of protesters staged candlelit vigils, held up her picture, or wore T-shirts proclaiming, "NEDA — Nothing Except Democracy Acceptable". The internet was flooded with tributes, poems and songs.
She was no less of an icon inside Iran, whose Shia population is steeped in the mythology of martyrdom. Vigils were held. Her grave became something of a shrine, and the 40th day after her death — an important date in Shia mourning rituals — was marked by a big demonstration in Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran that riot police broke up.
It was not hard to see why Ms Soltan so quickly became the face of the opposition, the Iranian equivalent of the young man who confronted China’s tanks during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations 20 years earlier. She was young and pretty, innocent, brave and modern. She wore make-up beneath her mandatory headscarf, jeans and trainers beneath her long, black coat, and liked to travel. She transcended the narrow confines of religion, nationality and ideology. She evoked almost universal empathy.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/...
NEDA — Nothing Except Democracy Acceptable
Warning: video contains Graphic footage
Power to the People!
moon