Monday, July 13, 2009
We will never know why she got out of that car.
Was she simply fed up with the traffic jam she and her music teacher were stuck in? Or did she want to feel the excitement? Or even join the demo?
We’ll never know. Certainly, Neda Soltani never expected to die a martyr’s death that sunny day in Teheran.
Like nothing in recent memory, we’ve been transfixed by the video images of Neda’s murder. After a modern, connected, 27-year life (school; college; boyfriend; interest in music and singing; and visits to Turkey), she was shot in the heart by some woman-hating, pimply loser in the ayatollahs’ militia who’s probably never had a date in his life.
Was she simply fed up with the traffic jam she and her music teacher were stuck in? Or did she want to feel the excitement? Or even join the demo?
We’ll never know. Certainly, Neda Soltani never expected to die a martyr’s death that sunny day in Teheran.
Like nothing in recent memory, we’ve been transfixed by the video images of Neda’s murder. After a modern, connected, 27-year life (school; college; boyfriend; interest in music and singing; and visits to Turkey), she was shot in the heart by some woman-hating, pimply loser in the ayatollahs’ militia who’s probably never had a date in his life.
Hell awaits him.
Yet, Neda’s death has shamed radical Islam and symbolized a new revolution whose time may be not yet.
And her story is not done. Just this week came word that Neda was actually a Christian. Her famous portrait was cropped to hide a crucifix necklace.
Her name means “divine calling.” Some day, I believe, this beautiful young woman’s statue will stand before the Majlis, the Iranian parliament. At the dedication of that statue, Neda will receive at last the public memorial the current Iranian government’s bully-boys denied her.
Until then, her temporary epitaph was spoken by John Viscount Morley: “you have not converted a man because you have silenced him.”
Neda’s in good company. Women have often served as allegories of the best in humanity.
The original revolutionary heroine was Marianne, the symbol of the Triumph of the French Republic. Combining earlier feminine allegories for Liberty and Reason, Marianne’s statue stands in the Place de la Republique, in the Place de la Nation and in the halls of the French Senate. Her image appears on French stamps, on French euros, on the old francs and on town halls and law courts throughout France. .
Today, Marianne is usually pictured holding an olive branch. Or wearing a plain dress and a Phrygian cap. But her most iconic image appears in Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. Barebreasted, and waving the tri-color, Marianne leads a mob against the King’s troops.
During World War I, Marianne’s image appeared on recruiting posters, sometimes with two other female allegories: Britannia and Mother Russia.
Nor is Neda Soltani the only real woman to become a national symbol. During the Spanish Civil War of 1934-1937, fighters for the left-wing Spanish Republic were rallied by a Communist leader called “La Pasionara.” In today’s Myanmar (Burma), we have Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
America, too, has her feminine symbols. Actually, several women. To us moderns, there’s Lady Liberty, the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. It was a gift from the French Republic to the people of the United States in 1886.
Atop the U.S. Capital’s dome stands the Statue of Freedom, installed there in 1863.
The original design called for a liberty cap on the statue’s head. However, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (a slaveowner and later president of the Confederacy) vetoed that because a liberty cap is worn by freed slaves. The statue wears a helmet instead.
Finally, America has been personified since the 1730’s as “Columbia.” The name – a play on Christopher Columbus’ name - may have been coined by Dr. Samuel Johnson. Today, the name appears on ships and on a space shuttle, in universities, state capitals, cities, rivers and other places in the United States, as well as the name of the District of Columbia.
The song “Hail, Columbia” was once America’s de facto national anthem. It’s now the entrance march for the Vice President of the United States.
I wonder if Joe Biden knows that. But, then, Joe knows everything…
Finally, and close kin to Neda, is the famous Goddess of Democracy, the 10-meter statue raised in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Like its builders, the statue was attacked and destroyed by the Peoples Liberation Army. In an image seen around the world, the Goddess was crushed by a tank.
Replicas stand, among other places, in Hong Kong and in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Someday, I hope to take my daughter to see Neda’s statue in Teheran’s Parliament Square. If not, I hope she will go by herself.
Yet, Neda’s death has shamed radical Islam and symbolized a new revolution whose time may be not yet.
And her story is not done. Just this week came word that Neda was actually a Christian. Her famous portrait was cropped to hide a crucifix necklace.
Her name means “divine calling.” Some day, I believe, this beautiful young woman’s statue will stand before the Majlis, the Iranian parliament. At the dedication of that statue, Neda will receive at last the public memorial the current Iranian government’s bully-boys denied her.
Until then, her temporary epitaph was spoken by John Viscount Morley: “you have not converted a man because you have silenced him.”
Neda’s in good company. Women have often served as allegories of the best in humanity.
The original revolutionary heroine was Marianne, the symbol of the Triumph of the French Republic. Combining earlier feminine allegories for Liberty and Reason, Marianne’s statue stands in the Place de la Republique, in the Place de la Nation and in the halls of the French Senate. Her image appears on French stamps, on French euros, on the old francs and on town halls and law courts throughout France. .
Today, Marianne is usually pictured holding an olive branch. Or wearing a plain dress and a Phrygian cap. But her most iconic image appears in Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. Barebreasted, and waving the tri-color, Marianne leads a mob against the King’s troops.
During World War I, Marianne’s image appeared on recruiting posters, sometimes with two other female allegories: Britannia and Mother Russia.
Nor is Neda Soltani the only real woman to become a national symbol. During the Spanish Civil War of 1934-1937, fighters for the left-wing Spanish Republic were rallied by a Communist leader called “La Pasionara.” In today’s Myanmar (Burma), we have Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
America, too, has her feminine symbols. Actually, several women. To us moderns, there’s Lady Liberty, the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. It was a gift from the French Republic to the people of the United States in 1886.
Atop the U.S. Capital’s dome stands the Statue of Freedom, installed there in 1863.
The original design called for a liberty cap on the statue’s head. However, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (a slaveowner and later president of the Confederacy) vetoed that because a liberty cap is worn by freed slaves. The statue wears a helmet instead.
Finally, America has been personified since the 1730’s as “Columbia.” The name – a play on Christopher Columbus’ name - may have been coined by Dr. Samuel Johnson. Today, the name appears on ships and on a space shuttle, in universities, state capitals, cities, rivers and other places in the United States, as well as the name of the District of Columbia.
The song “Hail, Columbia” was once America’s de facto national anthem. It’s now the entrance march for the Vice President of the United States.
I wonder if Joe Biden knows that. But, then, Joe knows everything…
Finally, and close kin to Neda, is the famous Goddess of Democracy, the 10-meter statue raised in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Like its builders, the statue was attacked and destroyed by the Peoples Liberation Army. In an image seen around the world, the Goddess was crushed by a tank.
Replicas stand, among other places, in Hong Kong and in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Someday, I hope to take my daughter to see Neda’s statue in Teheran’s Parliament Square. If not, I hope she will go by herself.
posted by wilson @ 10:54 AM
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