Murdered teen becomes 'voice of the Iranian revolution'

16-year-old filmed bleeding to death became popular clip on YouTube.

By TORI CHEIFETZ
Neda 248 (photo credit: From youtube)
Neda 248
(photo credit: From youtube)
The grisly murder of a 16-year-old protester named Neda at a demonstration in Teheran on Saturday was captured by at least two different cameras and posted on the popular video-sharing Web site, YouTube. The longer video, which is 40 seconds in length, has been seen by over 60,000 viewers since it was posted Saturday. The video clip shows Neda falling to the ground after being shot in the chest by a single bullet. As the girl lies on the pavement staring blankly up, blood starts to seep out of her nose, and mouth. Three men bend over Neda attempting to save her life while in the background, bystanders can be heard screaming out in anguish. The video ends with her face covered in blood. Warning: Disturbing footage: A Middle East news Web site, Al Bawaba, reported that Neda was pronounced dead two minutes after the footage was taken. According to Al Bawaba, "The video has since seen a wide global circulation and developed into a rallying cry for the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Iran who have disputed President Ahmadinejad's June 12 victory over rival Mir Hossein Mousavi." Neda, which means "voice," in Persian, has been dubbed, "the voice of the Iranian revolution," by users of social networking sites, Twitter and Facebook. According to reports on the two sites, the murder was carried out by a member of the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary organization, which takes orders from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards under the direction of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini. A first-hand account of the murder was published in Farsi and translated by Facebook users into English. "At 19:05 June 20th Place: Karegar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi St. A young woman who was standing aside with her father 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 at 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 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass [sic] used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know." An Iranian blogger using the name Hateiri, on his Web site, Iranian.com, dedicated his post to the memory of Neda and asserted, "she will be the new symbol of Iran. Her murder by the regime is the beginning of our movement and we will continue this movement and carry her name everywhere." A popular re-tweet, a Twitter posting reposted on the accounts of Twitter users after it was originally posted, compared Neda to Muhammad al-Dura, a Palestinian boy shot and killed during the first days of the Second Intifada, who became the face of the Palestinian uprising. "Like Mohammed Al Dura the kid killed by Israeli soldiers in 2000, the image of Neda killed by a Basij in 2009 will remain with me forever," read the re-tweet. Twitter users have also started changing their profile pictures on Twitter to a memorial photo, which shows a light-green broken heart on a background of dark green, with "Neda" written in white underneath.