Photo: AP
By: Joan Walsh
Source: salon.com
I haven’t been able to shake the image of the Iranian martyr, 26-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan, dying, live, on a cellphone video in Tehran on Saturday. The way her eyes follow the camera — follow us, the global bystanders, seeming to demand that we do something — has haunted me ever since.
I’m not the only one: Neda is a hero worldwide, a top search term on Google, a trending topic on Twitter. I mostly agree with Kate Harding that over-identifying with Neda is silly — we are not Neda, and mourning her isn’t exactly bringing down the Iranian government — but she’s catalyzing a crucial global reaction nonetheless. Even the late news that Neda herself wasn’t terribly political, just a philosophy student who loved to sing, doesn’t blunt her impact. Women are banned from public singing in Iran.
Paradoxically, I want the world to stand up for Neda — and stand with all the other Iranians, especially the Iranian women, fighting and dying for freedom this week. But I think President Obama has had nearly perfect pitch in his statements on the struggle there. Now he’s holding a Tuesday press conference that most people believe will feature some new statement on Iran. We can only hope he will recast his already strong statements condemning the Iranian government’s “unfair and violent” crackdown and pledging to “stand with” the Iranian protesters. Amid the din of braying Republicans, which has somehow become as big a story as the Iranian uprising itself, no one seems to be listening to Obama.
