Neda's mother: She was 'like an angel'

Much thanks to Marc,, who sent me this.

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Neda's mother: She was 'like an angel'

By Wayne Drash and Octavia Nasr, CNN
November 5, 2009 1:01 a.m. EST





(CNN) -- The night before she was killed on the streets of Tehran, the woman the world would come to know simply as Neda had a dream. "There was a war going on," she told her mom the next morning, "and I was in the front."

Neda's mother had joined her in the street protests that erupted after Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election. But on that fateful morning, she told her daughter she couldn't go with her. As Neda prepared to leave, the mother was filled with anxiety.

"I told her to be very careful, and she said she would."

More than four months after Neda's death, her mother, Hajar Rostami, described the pain her family has endured and how grateful they are to millions across the world who have hailed Neda as a martyr -- a symbol of freedom for Iran. She spoke with CNN by phone in her native Farsi from her home in Tehran a few days ago.

"As a message to everyone, I really want to thank the whole world," she said. "And I don't really know how to thank them, so I ask of you: Please find the right words for me.

"I can't tell you how much it has warmed our hearts, how much it's helped us."

There is a Farsi expression that describes a grieving person's need to talk about the pain in her heart, to empty her soul. And that's what this is: a mourning mother who for months has wept and cried -- and remained silent about her daughter's killing, until now.


"This is a pain that will never heal," she said in a gentle, hushed tone.

'I need not worry'

On June 20, Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, headed to Tehran's Nilofar Square, where thousands of protesters gathered. Clashes were particularly intense that day, with demonstrators and riot police squaring off.

Neda, accompanied by her music teacher, called home with frequent updates. "Mom, there are just too many clashes going on. There are a lot of police and forces around."

Tear gas was lobbed at the crowd. Neda headed to a medical clinic to get her eyes washed. "My eyes are really burning hard," she said.

Twenty minutes later, Neda's mom reached her again. "She said she was on her way back home -- that I need not worry."

Neda told the same thing to her aunt and uncle, who also called to check up on her.

Wearing blue jeans, a black shirt and white sneakers, Neda walked toward her car, parked on a side street not far from the heated protests. "It didn't occur to her that anything was going to be different," her mother said.

Then, Neda was killed. A single bullet struck her chest.

Recalling that day, her mother paused in the hourlong interview. The family, she said, has gone back to the scene and retraced Neda's movements.

"She was only 26 steps from her car."

Those were 26 steps Neda never had a chance to take -- the difference between returning home to her family and becoming a symbol of a greater struggle inside Iran.

READ the rest of NEDA'S story here,,,

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/11/05/neda.mom.speaks/index.html