- 24 September 2009
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- 6 Comments
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- Events in Iran, Human Rights in Iran, Iran Election 2009
Neda or Marwa?
24 September 2009 Posted By Matthew Negreanu
CBS News Anchor Katie Couric interviewed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hours before his planned address to the UN on Wednesday evening. Ahmadinejad spoke on various issues including “his crackdown on election protesters.”
When Couric asked a question about Neda and her death, Ahmadinejad changed the subject.
Ahmadinejad on July 16 in a letter called on the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon to investigate the killing of Egyptian veiled lady Marwa el-Sherbini who was stabbed to death in a German courtroom. Iran issued a commemorative set of stamps (it is said only about 1000 sets were printed) to honor her “martyrdom.”
Many Iranian criticized the government for honoring an Egyptian martyr while simultaneously denouncing victims of its own repression like Neda Agha Soltan.
Read more for excerpts from Katie Couric’s interview:
Couric: During and after the presidential election, Mr. President, thousands of opposition supporters and journalists were arrested, badly beaten and tortured. Arrested, badly beaten and tortured. One woman – 27 year old Neda as you know, was shot to death while protesting. Her death was captured on a cell phone camera. Here is a shot of that cell phone picture which I’m sure you’ve seen.
Admadinejad: Correct.
Couric: What would you say to her family?
Ahmadinejad: We are – very sorry that one of our fellow citizens has been killed. As a victim of an – agitation of circumstance. An agitation that was carried out with the support of some American politicians, the voice of America, and the BBC.
Couric: Do you really think so little of your citizens that they can be manipulated and brainwashed by Americans and the UK?
Ahmadinejad: No. That is not what I’m saying. But I do say that some agitations from outside were there. I mean, there are plenty of documents pointing to that. Regrettably, one of our citizens lost her life–
The president then produced a photograph of an Egyptian woman – Marwa el-Sherbini – who was brutally murdered inside a German courtroom while taking part in a trial over the right to wear a hijab – or headscarf. He suggested that the western media – who turned Neda into a martyr – ignored Marwa’s story.
6 Responses to “Neda or Marwa?”
Matthew, you’re being dishonest. Ahmadinejad did answer the question regarding the Neda incident. Afterwards, he went on to describe another incident involving the Egyptian woman.
By the way, when I was a young person living in the 1960’s, many American student demonstrators were beaten by baton wielding police and a few even shot to death. Did they ever get their faces put on US postage stamps? No. And all the while, billions of dollars were being spent on South Vietnam, while we had the nerve to claim human rights violations were taking place behind the so-called Iron Curtain.
Yes, the hypocrisy of it all.
Mr. or Mrs. anonymous, if you read the post it does not say that Amdaninejad did not answer, it simply says that “Ahmadinejad changed the subject.” And that is true. If you know Ahmadinejad, you also should know that his is a master in changing the subjects, and evading questions because he does not want to be trapped by the questions that he does not like. He did answer the question about Neda, but did not want to go through details because he would be blamed for that crime. He simply changed the subject after mentioning brifly about Neda’s death.
Also, my question after this post is to compare what he (as president) or Iranian government have done for Neda (as an Iranian female martyr), and what they have done for Marva (as an Egyptian female martyr). It is nice to care for human rights for everybody, everywhere, but what about your people? Neda has the same rights as Marva’s.
It is the interest of the Iranian regime to constantly divert attention to ‘crimes’ happening elsewhere. Obviously he got the news of Marwa’s death from the same western media which he accuses of stoking up the Neda story. The truth is that regime has made protests illegal in Iran (this is against the constitutional rights of Iranian citizens). Protestors have no rights – they can be beaten, imprisoned, prosecuted, jailed, murdered etc. What happens to them is dependent on political expedience.
The case of Neda and Marwa are same or may be not same, the fact is that they both died by the brutality of human(!) being. We should take all cases of violating the human rights rationaly, otherwise we all muslims, christians etc those are supporting our own community will be responsible for future incindents. We or our relatives, friends will be the victims of this type of brutality.
Ahmadinejad played Couric’s game (not that I like/agree with his stances, i don’t) but the interviews were not meant to be informative, just posturing / media jockeying
you’re being dishonest, he didn’t change the subject he did answer to the comment about Neda. He then criticized Western media for sensationalizing news that makes Iranian government look bad. It’s called hypocrisy.