On June 20, 2009, Neda, a philosophy student[10], was sitting in her car in traffic on Kargar Avenue in the city of Tehran[5], near the Amir-Abad area, accompanied by her music teacher. They were on their way to attend a march in protest of the issues surrounding the 2009 Iranian presidential election. Having gotten out of the car because of the excessive heat, she was allegedly targeted and shot in the chest by plainclothes Basij paramilitaries who were attempting to subdue the protesters.[11] Neda's last words were: I'm burning, I'm burning![12]
Undated amateur videos depicting Neda collapsing to the ground, being tended to, and dying as her lungs filled with blood from the wound, were uploaded to Facebook and YouTube[5], and spread across the internet virally. The videos were accompanied by a message from a doctor, allegedly a frontline physician during the Iran-Iraq war, who claimed to have been present during the incident: 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 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 used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know."[13]
TEHRAN, Iran — Three defendants in Iran's mass trial of opposition figures accused of fueling the country's postelection unrest have been sentenced to death, an Iranian news agency reported Saturday.
Remember that our Nobel Appease Prize winning president said we'd have to wait and see "how this plays out."
Neda died with open eyes. Shame on us who live with closed eyes.
