Y'all may remember the grisly video I posted 30-odd days ago showing the death of Neda Soltan in one of the protests in Iran. Nobody knew at that point what a symbol she would become for Iranians.
Her name means "voice," "calling," or "divine message." It was pretty easy to see why this would soon become meaningful. Her death, or martyrdom, has many more sociopolitical implications than we Americans might realize:
From Times Online:
More protests planned in Tehran to mark end of 40-day mourning
Defiant opposition supporters will return to the streets of Tehran today, emboldened by tales of prison abuse and an eruption of hostilities between President Ahmadinejad and his fellow hardliners.
The occasion is the passing of 40 days — the official end of the mourning period for Shia Muslims — since Iranian security forces killed Neda Soltan and protesters during a demonstration on June 20.
A mourning ceremony in the Grand Mosala prayer hall, which can hold 100,000 people, has been banned so the opposition is planning demonstrations in at least nine locations around the capital.
Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, the defeated presidential candidates, will visit the grave of Ms Soltan whose death, which was caught on video, made her a global symbol of the regime’s brutality.
The 40-day mark has particular resonance for Iranians: when protesters were killed during the 1978-79 revolution, the Shah’s opponents turned commemoration ceremonies into political demonstrations.
They were suppressed, more people were killed, bigger demonstrations were held — and so the cycle continued until the Shah was eventually ousted.
Thousands are expected to take to the streets this evening and the security forces are likely to disperse them forcibly, but the opposition has been heartened by the ruptures that have opened within the regime.
Mr Ahmadinejad has incurred the wrath of conservatives by choosing Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, the father of his daughter-in-law, to be Deputy Prime Minister, defying an order by Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, that he drop him.
Mr Ahmadinejad may have wanted to surround himself with friends to provide a buffer, or to show that he was not Ayatollah Khamenei’s puppet.
Some have speculated that he considered Mr Mashaei as his successor. Conservatives loathe Mr Mashaei, considering him soft on Israel and a liberal.
Several ministers protested at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday last week. Mr Ahmadinejad relented but dismissed at least two of the ministers and appointed Mr Mashaei as Chief of Staff instead — an act of deliberate provocation that infuriated hardliners.
More than 200 of Iran’s 290 MPs have signed letters of protest over the President’s actions. The conservative newspaper Yalesarat yesterday demanded that Mr Ahmadinejad apologise to the people.
The Islamic Society of Engineers, an influential conservative body, demanded his “unconditional obedience to the Supreme Leader” and warned that he could be deposed.
The problems of the regime have been compounded by accounts of torture and death from the prisons where hundreds of opposition activists were taken after the disputed election.
The stories are redolent of the Shah’s era: one released man told how he was forced to lick a toilet bowl; another prisoner described how guards squashed inmates into a cell, smashed the lights and beat them in the darkness, during which at least four died; others said that they were tortured to make them sign false confessions.
Relatives have described being taken to an improvised mortuary packed with corpses and being ordered to say nothing about how their sons or husbands died.
The death toll is thought to be in excess of the 30 that the regime acknowledges, but the most damaging fatality was that of Mohsen Rouhalamini, 25, who was beaten during the two weeks that he spent in the Kahrizak detention centre.
Mr Rouhalamini was the son of a prominent conservative and his death has shocked even the political elite.
“The perpetrators must be identified and punished,” one hardline MP demanded. “Those who have turned this country into a police state ... have to be held accountable,” said another. “There’s absolute disbelief among many conservatives at what’s taken place,” a Tehran analyst said.
Mindful of the accusations against it, the regime is making some concessions. In the past two days the Government released 140 detainees, Ayatollah Khamenei ordered the closure of the Kahrizak prison and the head of the judiciary has promised that the cases of all detainees will be reviewed within a week.
Even Mr Ahmadinejad has asked that the detainees be shown mercy, but the state news agency said that about twenty prisoners accused of terrorist links and violence would stand trial on Saturday.
Mr Mousavi is expected to press home his advantage by beginning a political front — a coalition of groups seeking justice and democracy — before Mr Ahmadinejad’s inauguration on Wednesday.
Mr Ahmadinejad’s troubles may be only just starting. Ali Larijani, the Speaker of Parliament, has become one of his harshest critics and the President will struggle even to have his Cabinet confirmed.
Mr Ahmadinejad also faces severe economic problems. The funds that he lavished on favoured constituencies in his first term have dried up, ministries have been ordered to slash budgets and projects have been suspended. Oil no longer brings in the revenue that it did before the world economic crisis.
On top of that, a substantial proportion of the population, including many clerics and senior politicians, regard him as illegitimate. “He’s in trouble — not fatal trouble but he’s wounded. He’s damaged goods,” the analyst said.
Here's significantly more information about Neda on Wikipedia, if you're interested:
Death of Neda Agha-Soltan
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