Los Angeles Times reporter Borzou Daragahi has an in-depth story on Neda Agha-Soltan, the Iranian woman whose death, captured on video (warning in case you haven’t seen it yet: extremely graphic and disturbing), has become a symbol of the post-election uprising.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that Iranian goons attacked and arrested people who tried to attend a memorial service for Soltan.
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Having the comely Neda as the face of Iran will allow the networks to gin up the nonsense on Obama. I'd expect the woman-in-trouble network –NBC– to begin a full-court press on "Today" preceding the presidential news conference Tuesday. While the death was dreadful Iran is still a criminal theocracy with which we have no diplomatic relations.
The Revolution is all about women. Read Anne Applebaum in Slate today.
Last week I wrote a comment on your blog, "Images of women being beaten are potentially explosive in the Middle East, and could easily cause the whole situation to boil over far more than it is now."The video of Neda Agha-Soltan is that image.There is a big, big reason why the Iran government allowed marchers to mourn the deaths of protesters last Thursday, but would not allow even the smallest public mourning over Neda. The mullahs recognize the power of her bloody image to tug at their societal mores.Theirs is a tacit acknowledgment that they know her death will be broadly considered as unjust in their own society — and that they value their continued political power higher than social justice.One author has said recently that Neda is Iran's Marianne. Not really. Marianne is a composite figure that emerged many years after both the French Revolution or the First Republic.I'm not sure there is a good parallel for the symbol that Neda is becoming.