NEDA IS TIMES UK PERSON OF THE YEAR

Overnight she became a global symbol of the regime’s brutality, and of the remarkable courage of Iran’s opposition in a region where other populations are all too easily suppressed by despotic governments.

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. The exiled son of the Shah of Iran carried her photograph in his chest pocket. 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/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6967927.ece

WE ARE NEDA
http://www.youtube.com/user/weareneda
http://www.facebook.com/Neda4ever
http://neda.webnode.com/

IS IRAN BURNING ?

Tehran is on fire and enveloped in smoke tonight.

Mohseni Square is under siege by militias, and the frightened, bloody demonstrators are seeking refuge in people's homes. The militias have been crowding the square since the afternoon, shouting and wielding batons at anyone who fails to move swiftly past them. Families are out in the streets again carrying grocery bags, to show that they have an excuse for passing through.

Kaj Square and upper Valiasr are scenes of demonstrations and clashes with guards. Just a few hours earlier all our neighbors opened their doors to bloody and bruised demonstrators.Tehran will not sleep tonight. It will burn in fire and smoke and blood. But that is the Tehran I have come to know.

In this same city, many will lay soundly in slumber. Many will sleep never having heard these cries or never having felt the sharp, stinging batons. We truly do reside on different planets it seems, while still working and studying and living in the same city.

The question is, when or how will these different planets collide?

http://current.com/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2009/12/...

Iran --Anti Riot police van on Fire

Iran-- Footage WARNING GRAPHIC

Iran -- Outnumbered riot police begs protesters not to hurt them

IRAN: Basijis arrested; weapons taken; motorcycles burnt

Iran -- People chase police , girl got injured and guy shot

Iran-- Protesters stopped police car and free protesters from inside