Photo: Wikipedia (non-free image)
Neda Agha-Soltan
ندا آقاسلطان
2009 · 17 years ago
- Taken
- 20 June 2009
- Age
- 26 years old
- From
- Tehran, Tehran
Kept on this phone only. Nothing is sent.
Their life
Neda Agha-Soltan grew up in Tehran and, in her mother's words, never accepted being controlled, from the age of three. At school she fought not to wear the chador, and won. It tormented her that the forced hijab kept her from swimming in the sea or being herself in the street.
She loved music: Arabic dance, Western and Turkish pop, and above all Googoosh. She read, studied Turkish and took private lessons to become a tour guide, because travel was her passion and she hoped one day to lead Iranians on trips abroad. She left Islamic philosophy at Azad University after two semesters, telling her sister that the vengeful God they taught there was not the loving God she believed in. Her music teacher remembered her as a beam of light.
How the regime took them
Neda had thought the 2009 election pointless, then watched the debates and went to three polling stations, where she objected that only Ahmadinejad's representatives were there. After the result she joined the protests.
On 20 June 2009, around 7:20 pm, she was standing near Kargar Street in Tehran with her music teacher when a single shot hit her in the chest. She died almost at once while people around her filmed, and the video went around the world. Bystanders caught a man they said was a Basij member and took his identity card. No one was ever charged.
