The BBC has taped an astonishing interview with a doctor who was on the scene when Neda Soltan was infamously killed in the streets of Tehran. Doctor Arash Hejazi is an Iranian who is studying in Britain. The interview, by Rachel Harvey, is an astonishing narrative of the last moments of Neda's life and how Iranians reacted in the immediate aftermath.
In the interview, Hejazi describes walking down to the site of the protest, and what he saw there. He heard what he thought may have been a gunshot, and turned around to see Neda standing in a pool of blood. He rushes to her aid, but his attempts to stop the bleeding are in vain. Mostly, these facts are already known. However, Hejazi also describes how Iranian citizens accosted the man they believed to be her killer. He was shouting, "I didn't mean to kill her." Then, the protesters demanded his ID cards, which say that he was a member of the Basij. Personally, Hejazi describes compulsively trying to wash the blood from his hands, and losing three nights of sleep.
It is amazing how, despite the crackdown inside Iran, light is leaking through the media blackout. The number of tweets and YouTube post have all but disappeared over the last few days, and street protest have significantly dwindled. There are even reports that the government has resorted to physically confiscating personal electronic devices, which cannot sit well with those Iranians who may be on the fence. The regime, however, has already lost much of its legitimacy, certainly to the world, but also inside Iran. As shown by Dr. Arash Hejazi, Iranians want to be part of the world community. Cracking skulls and taking names may work to quiet demonstrations this week, but it does not change the underlying dynamics or the attitudes of its people for the future.
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