Prince Harry at West Point

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The footage of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan (Persian: ندا آقا سلطان - Nedā Āġā Soltān; January 23, 1982 -- June 20, 2009) drew international attention after she was killed during the 2009 Iranian election protests. Her death was captured on video by bystanders and broadcast over the Internet and the video became a rallying point for the reformist opposition. It was described as "probably the most widely witnessed death in human history". Nedā (ندا) is a word used in Persian to mean "voice", "calling," or "divine message," and she has been referred to as the "voice of Iran." Her death became iconic in the struggle of Iranian protesters against what they said was the fraudulent election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

On June 20, 2009, at around 6:30 p.m., Neda Agha-Soltan was sitting in her Peugeot 206 in traffic on Kargar Avenue in the city of Tehran. She was accompanied by her music teacher and close friend, Hamid Panahi, and two others, who remain unidentified. The four were on their way to participate in the protests against the outcome of the 2009 Iranian presidential election. The car's air conditioner was not working well, so she stopped her car some distance from the main protests and got out on foot to escape the heat. She was standing and observing the sporadic protests in the area when she was shot in the chest.

As captured on amateur video, she collapsed to the ground and was tended to by a doctor, her music teacher, and others from the crowd. Someone in the crowd around her shouted, "She has been shot! Someone, come and take her!"The videos were accompanied by a message from a doctor, later identified as Dr. Arash Hejazi, who said he had been present during the incident (but has since fled Iran out of fear of government reprisals): "At 19:05 June 20th Place: Kargar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father [sic, later identified as her music teacher] watching the protests was shot by a Basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than two minutes. The protests were going on about one kilometre away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gas used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me."

Her last words were, "I'm burning, I'm burning!" She died en route to Tehran's Shariati hospital.

Hejazi, standing one metre away from her when she was shot, tried to staunch her wound with his hands. Hejazi said nearby members of the crowd pulled a man from his motorcycle while shouting: "We got him, we got him," disarmed him, obtained his identity card and identified him as a member of the Basij militia (government paramilitary). The militiaman, identified as Abbas Kargar Javid, (Persian: عباس کارگر جاوید - Abbās Kārgar Jāvɪd) was shouting, "I didn't want to kill her." The protesters let him go, but they kept the alleged killer's identity card and took many photographs of him. A recent documentary on the shooting contained a previously unseen clip of demonstrators capturing the militiaman seconds after the shooting

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Biography

Neda Agha-Soltan
Died Tehran
Resting place Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery, southern Tehran
Residence Meshkini Street, Tehranpars neighborhood, Tehran
Nationality Iranian
Alma mater Islamic Azad University (graduate, philosophy and religion)

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Mobile Video Tapes Inc. (dba KRGV an ABC News channel 5) unpaid Agent of the Dictator Ahmadinejad in Suppressing Free Flow of Information and Censorship

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