The open letter of Neda to President Obama

The letter bellow was posted on my facebook discussion page yesterday by the ID Mehdi Amin, which I’m sure is an alias. The letter is based on my open letter to President Obama; but this time it’s not me who is addressing the President; it’s Neda Agha Soltan. It was a really moving letter and therefore I have posted here (courtesy of Mehdi Amin), so that perhaps President Obama reads it:

Dear Mr. President Obama,
My name is Neda Agha Soltan. I was killed by a Basiji in a street of Tehran while watching a post-election protest. Perhaps you remember me. Millions of people watched me die in less than 40 seconds. Perhaps you remember my open eyes when I took my last breath. But I will live for ever in the memory of freedom loving people of the world. I have become the guardian angle of my sisters and brothers who are fighting for a free Iran; I have become their voice and that is why I am writing to you.
Just imagine one of your daughters dying in the same way as I did! How would you feel if not only the killer went unpunished, but got rewarded for what they did? What would you tell millions of Iranian young people who are feeling that the beacon of freedom has betrayed them by shaking hands with the killers of their sisters and brothers? What would you tell your daughters if they asked why you are rewarding the killers of Neda?
I am the voice of the people of Iran . I am calling upon you to support the democratic movement of people in Iran . I am not asking you to make war. I am not even asking you to help our struggle for freedom. I am just asking you not to support the government that has terrorized its own nation for 30 years. I am just asking you to stand on the side of humanity instead of oppression, torture, rape, and killing.
With regards
Neda Agha-Soltan

I don’t know who David Fairbanks is, but his kind words brought tears into my eyes. No dark force can beat this dignity.

Arash Hejazi’s Interview with The Times / November 13, 2009

Iranian doctor Arash Hejazi who tried to rescue Neda Soltan tells of wounds that never heal

As Arash Hejazi sat in an Oxford coffee bar, members of Iran’s Basij militia in Tehran were demanding his extradition outside the British Embassy.

The previous day the Iranian regime had sent an Oxford college a letter of protest over a scholarship given to honour Neda Soltan, the student killed during a huge demonstration against electoral fraud in Tehran in June. The letter also suggested that Dr Hejazi was responsible for her murder.

Read more

Ahmadinejad versus Oxford University and Neda

The Iranian Embassy Objects to the Queens College’s Neda Scholarship

The Queen’s College venerates the memory of Neda Agha Soltan; the Iranian Government blames it on Arash Hejazi!

The paradox in the Iranian Government’s Statement Regarding Neda
The paradox lies in the fact that the Iranian government has reacted in different manners towards the death of Neda. First, the head of the Iranian National TV claimed that the video of her death was fake. But then, when they no longer could deny the death of Neda, they blamed the BBC correspondent in Iran for her death.

However, the Ambassador of Iran in Mexico claimed in an interview that her murder was planned by CIA. The protesters to the election results in Iran and the People’s Mujahedin Organisation where other bodies blamed by different Iranian authorities.

Then, after Arash Hejazi, the doctor who tried to save Neda in her last moment, explained in an interview with BBC that the Iranian militia or Basij were responsible for her death, he himself was ironically held responsible for Neda’s death and a prosecution started to arrest him. The Iranian Police Chief declared officially that Interpol is looking for Arash Hejazi, an allegation that was refuted instantly by Interpol.

More than a week ago, the chief of the Martyr’s foundation of Iran said that Neda could be considered a Martyr if the police and the judiciary approved that she was killed by the Iranian opposition or foreign intelligence services, although the mother of Neda announced that if she was a martyr, she was a martyr for her people, not the Islamic Republic.

Neda versus Ahmadinejad
Now, in an ironical turn of events, when Oxford University decides to venerate the memory of Neda, Ahmadimejad’s government protests against this decision, claiming that it is a ‘political move’ and she is just someone ‘murdered’.

The Involvement of Arash Hejazi
Arash Hejazi’s involvement in the case of Neda is where he was present at the time of her death accidentally. He rushed towards her in an attempt trying to save her. In vain, Neda’s body was drained out of blood in less than a minute. Then, when he believed that the truth was being distorted, he left Iran and in an interview he described the circumstances of her death. Since then, the government of Iran has always been vengeful against him.

However, in the letter of the Embassy of Iran to the Queen’s College, it is claimed that Arash Hejazi who was involved in Neda’s murder, is ‘a fellow’ to the Oxford University. This couldn’t be farther from truth and there will be no surprise if Oxford University discredit’s this claim instantly.

Arash Hejazi has never studied in the University of Oxford and has no relationships to them. He has studied in Oxford Brookes University, an academic body completely separate from the University of Oxford.

The Involvement of the Iranian Government in Neda’s Death
It seems that the Iranian government, trying to conceal its own involvement in the brutal murders that happened after the Presidential elections of Iran, is rushing towards discrediting itself.
No one can deny that on the same day that Neda Agha Soltan died, at least 30 other protesters were shot to death by the Iranian militia. They were shot in the the eye, the chest and the neck, proving that the shooters were aiming to kill, rather than aiming to control.

The Power of Neda

Media Revolution in Iran

How Neda Challenged Ahmadinejad and Censorship in her Death

How the video of Neda Agha Soltan’s death marks a defining moment in the history of media. Has it changed the concept of Freedom to Publish in the digital age?