Iran's young woman shot to death on camera, Moussavi calls for mourning

23 June 2009 @ 02:03 am EDT

Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi called upon supporters on Monday to mourn for the death of Neda Soltan.



A woman identified on Flickr as Neda Agha-Soltan is seen in an undated headshot uploaded to the site on June 22, 2009.
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The presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi made his appeal to the public on Facebook, asking demonstrators to gather in Tehran to memorize her death.

Neda Soltan, a young woman shot to death on June 20 during a protest march at Kargar Avenue in the city of Tehran, whose killing was captured on video by bystanders and was posted on YouTube and Facebook.

The video spread quickly across the internet and was accompanied by a message from an anonymous individual who claimed to have been present when the video was recorded.

"A young woman who was standing aside with her father (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, “the recorder said.

"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 recorder continued.

Neda means "voice" or "calling" in Persian, and she has been referred to as the "voice of Iran" and "a symbol of pro-democracy protesters battering the Islamic regime" in the world.

This article is copyrighted by International Business Times.

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