I hope the Iranian government is pleased with themselves:
The fiance of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman whose violent death during clashes in Tehran on Saturday was recorded on video and uploaded to the internet, has described the events leading up to her shooting in an interview for BBC Persian TV.
She had been sitting with her music teacher in a car, stuck in traffic, when she decided to get out because of the heat.
“She got out of the car for just for a few minutes [and] that’s when she was shot dead,” said Caspian Makan.
Mr Makan quoted eyewitnesses as saying she appeared to have been targeted deliberately by “paramilitaries in civilian clothing”.
He added that officials had prevented mourners holding a memorial service at a mosque on Monday.“The authorities are aware that everybody in Iran and throughout the whole world knows about her story,” he told the BBC. “They were afraid that lots of people could turn up.”
Adding insult to injury…
robert fisk may have written the pithiest comment yet regarding the unfolding fiasco in iran: “Iran’s Supreme Leader and its officially elected president are terrified by the spectre of counter-revolution”.
they’re digging their own graves.
Robert Fisk is the closest thing to god when it comes to Middle East journalism – except when it comes to Lebanon where he loses his good judgment to his personal relationships and loyalties.
You’d think such devoted religionists would think a fundamental observance of their “faith” would take priority over secular political worries, wouldn’t you? I guess theocrats are the same the wide world over.
One of the important principles of Shi`a Islam is that “clerics” are supposed to stick to religion and let others do the politics/government stuff. That is one of the many differences between Irani and Iraqi Shi`as that very few people – including quite a few self-proclaimed “experts” seem to be completely unaware of when they try to lump Irani and Iraqi Shi`as into one category.
And Sistani is much more of a traditional cleric than Khomeini and his followers.
Yes, he is, as are the majority of Iraqis.