Nedā Āġā-Soltān ( آقا سلطان ), a 26-year-old Iranian woman, was shot Saturday – probably by pro-government militia known as the baseej – and died minutes later. Her death was captured on a gruesome YouTube that went viral almost immediately. As with most people more famous in death than in life, little is known about her.
(ندا آقا سلطان ( بهمن ۱۳۶۱-۳۰ خرداد ۱۳۸۸
Nedā Soltān (her name is sometimes romanised as Soltani) was the second child of three who grew up in the middle-class Tehranpars neighbourhood. She studied Islamic philosophy at Azad University and worked part-time as a travel agent, following her dream to lead Iranians on tours abroad one day. In her short life, she had already gone on trips to Dubai, Turkey and Thailand, and she was taking classes to learn Turkish.
She loved music, but couldn’t decide on an instrument: she had taken violin lessons, but then she decided she’d rather learn piano, so she gave up violin. The piano she bought hadn’t been delivered yet when she was killed.
She was headed with her friend and music teacher Hamid Panahi to Azadi Square (with the iconic tower) for a protest march. Stuck in traffic, she and Hamid got out of the car to try and get a look around and to get some relief from the late-afternoon heat of Tehran in June. She walked along Kargar Street, talking on her cell phone. A shot rang out, probably from a nearby rooftop. She fell before Hamid knew what had happened. People rushed to help, including another man named Hamed, who recorded her death with a video-enabled cell phone.
Passersby headed in the other direction shouted at them to put her in their car. They raced down the busy streets of Tehran in the midst of a protest, with people trying to clear traffic ahead of them. As they made a wrong turn down a dead end street, Nedā was carried into another car. Doctors at Shariati Hospital tried to revive her, but it was too late.
Meanwhile, Hamed had sent his cellphone video to a friend in the UK, who posted it on YouTube and Facebook. Within hours, millions of people had watched Nedā die.
We’ll probably never know. The most likely possibility is that it was a member of the baseej, the volunteer militia that takes its orders from the Pásdárán (known as the Revolutionary Guard in English). Since she was talking on her cell when she was shot, she may have been a target because cell phones are the primary method for getting information out of Iran. The government speculated that she was shot by members of the left-wing Mojāhedin-e Khalq in order to outrage the protesters, which is certainly possible… though it’s reasonable to be suspicious of anything the Iranian government might have to say.
- Is it ghoulish or exploitative to watch the video?
For some people, certainly, the only motivation to watch the YouTube of Nedā’s death is the same reason why they slow down at the scenes of traffic accidents: to see blood and gore. Most people have some combination of fascination with and repulsion from death and injury. This is pretty common, and it’s not bizarre in my opinion unless it turns into a mania where you actively seek such videos out.
Nedā was not an activist before the election. Her fiancé says she did not have a preferred candidate. She was an ordinary human being caught up in events. There are almost certainly many more deaths in Iran than we know about… certainly more than the government is admitting the outside world. And while Iran’s struggle is particularly heralded in the West because of our conflicted relationship with that country, it’s not at all uncommon in the world. Many have been killed in protests against unfair elections, and many will continue to.
Nedā Āġā-Soltān is no longer with us, and her image will be used for different purposes by many people in the days and months to come. If the death of a pretty young woman whose life is cut short gives you even a little sense of the pain experienced by many who are fighting, then I can’t see how that’s anything but positive. No one should be under any sort of illusion, though, that the situation in Iran is in any way unusual.
People are probably being killed in Iran as you’re reading this. They’re being killed in Pakistan, and in Zimbabwe, and in Serbia, and in Mexico. Each one of them has a family, and people who love them. Remember that when you look at Nedā.
