The Iran story has faded from the headlines in recent weeks, in large part because the Obama White House has not worked to keep it in the headlines, perhaps knowing that “America” and “Satan” are terms that tend to flow together in the minds of millions of Iranians.
This may make conservatives mad and liberals angry, but there you go.
Many mainstream journalists, as we’ve noted often here at GetReligion, are still struggling to figure out the role that doctrine is playing in this historic event. They have struggled to get the green revolutionaries and the theocratic government of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to fit neatly into their usual religion-and-politics framework.
You know the one. That’s the template that has winsome, intelligent, “moderate” religious people on one side and angry, dumb, “fundamentalists” on the other. Iran has been hard to jam into that cookie cutter. After all, as a Muslim scholar told me a year or two ago, “God will always have the right to vote” in a truly Islamic culture
So, the New York Times did take a run at explaining some of this in a recent news analysis piece that has been stored in my GetReligion guilt folder. It ran with the fitting, if obvious, headline, “In Iran Battle, Both Sides Seek to Carry Islam’s Banner.” Here’s the top of that essay:
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, ended his prayer sermon in tears …, invoking the name of a disappeared Shiite prophet to suggest that his government was besieged by forces of evil out to destroy a legitimate Islamic government.
The opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, in criticizing the government, demanded the kind of justice promised by the Koran and exhorted his followers to take to their rooftops at night to cry out, “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great.”
In the battle to control Iran’s streets, both the government and the opposition are deploying religious symbols and parables to portray themselves as pursing the ideal of a just Islamic state. That struggle could prove the main fulcrum in the battle for the hearts and minds of most ordinary Iranians, because the Islamic Revolution, since its inception, has painted itself as battling evil. If the government fails the test of being just, not least by using excessive violence against its citizens, it risks letting the opposition wrap itself in the mantle of Islamic virtue.
By the way, as you read that analysis piece, try to find this name — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Violence plays a key role in all of this, yet the violence must somehow be justified as an expression of Islamic justice — not simply a way of maintaining power.
This, again, brings us to the role of the holy warriors in this story, the Basij force.
The Basij — paramilitary, plainclothes vigilantes — is the main force the government uses to try to dispel antigovernment protesters. Thus far, that has been done mostly through beatings, arrests and other intimidation tactics. …
“In general, the Basij is an ideologically or culturally driven force, but the majority are very committed fundamentalists,” said Afshon P. Ostovar, who is writing his doctoral thesis at the University of Michigan about the Iranian security forces.
When violence is used in an unjust manner, what do you get? Martyrs. It is hard to make a consistent argument that you are fighting for peace and justice when people are dying while chanting “Allahu akbar.” After all, as the Times notes, “every time anyone inside Iran opens a Web site and sees the images of a teenage girl shot dead in a protest, it chips away at the government’s claim to being moral.”
This brings us back to the death of 26-year-old protester Neda “The Voice” Soltani, which the government of Iran is now arguing was staged by other protesters.
Out in the depths of cyberspace, bloggers have begun calling attention to another, less famous photo of Soltani. Actually, it is two versions of the same photo — both attached to this post. The top one is typical of several media reports.
Of course, the aftermath of Neda’s death was confusing, as the government worked hard to prevent the kind of gigantic, emotional, public funeral that is crucial in the Shiite rituals of mourning that follow the deaths of symbolic people. The funeral is the dramatic setting in which a martyr is hailed as a martyr. But Neda did not have a funeral.
It does not help that little concrete information is known about this family or about Soltani herself. Most media reports stressed that she was basically a secular person, a philosophy student and a musician (a questionable pursuit in Iran).
The mainstream press has reported that, in Soltani’s case, the police did not return the body to the family and banned public mourning services in mosques. Her family was forced out of its house.
What is going on? Some bloggers think that they know and that there is an even greater scandal at work here. Thus, we have this typical post at JihadWatch.org, linked to a report in a German publication (which I cannot read):
This is the poor young woman who was shot dead by Iranian security forces, and whose bleeding face became an image of the brutality and humanity of the mullahs. Now it turns out the Neda Soltani was a Christian — a telling indication that the analysts who dismissed the protesters as simply wanting more Sharia, or better Sharia, or Sharia with a different face, were wrong: it just wasn’t that simple.
It is also telling that the cross around her neck was cropped out when this photo circulated around the world.
The second photo has not been cropped. To me, this does not look like the cross has been inserted through digital editing. At the same time, I am not sure that a picture of her wearing a cross, with her head uncovered, is definitive proof that she was a Christian.
Anyway, the “Neda was a Christian” story has now spread to the FreeRepublic.com arena, where it is being discussed in the usual non-journalistic, or even anti-journalistic, terms. A typical reader response:
That Neda was a Christian doesn’t come as a huge surprise, nor the loathsome attempt to hide it by the media. The questions that arise from this issue are; How many Neda’s e.g. Christians are there in Iran? (I suspect far more than the ‘official’ number) and more importantly what can we, as Westerners do to help them? Send money, get involved in some charitable foundation to help Persian Christians(and Jews and other oppressed Persians)? Is there are way to help those Persians and Christians who want freedom and equality under the law and so many of the things we take for granted in the West? Can we help them escape Iran?
I mention this latest example of Internet rumor for a simple reason: The Iran story clearly isn’t over. I also wonder if there is, in fact, any reportable, journalistic information that supports this claim that “the voice” of this new Iranian revolution was, in fact, a member of a religious minority. Would the green revolutionaries accept that fact? Would this change her status? What if she had been Baha’i (and, thus, part of another very important story that has faded from the headlines)? One of the Iranian Jews?
As for me, I still want to know what’s going on behind the scenes in Iran. I hope that mainstream journalists do not leave these kinds of stories to the bloggers.
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Comments (30) |
July 6, 2009, at 12:56 pm
If this movement goes into the cyclical phenomenon that arose during the 1979 revolution — demostrations of mourning 40 days after the martyrdom of those killed in the previous demo, according to Shi’ite custom, with more dying in the new demo to keep the cycle going — then this will not disappear from the headlines and there will be new “voices,” with the news continuing to come to us via cellphone cameras and Twitter.
July 6, 2009, at 1:50 pm
One thing I learned on a recent trip to Israel and Turkey is that in those countries “Christian” has less to do with personal conviction than cultural affiliation than it does in America. A person who was raised attending church but is now an atheist would be considered a Christian. It seems to me that in the Middle East, even secular people are assigned a religious identity in order to establish their place in society.
July 6, 2009, at 2:46 pm
[…] is the original post: Pictures of Neda » GetReligion Tags: faded-from, iran headline, large-part, obama, recent-weeks, tommy-vietor […]
July 6, 2009, at 3:15 pm
David Hamstra:
Being a Christian in the Middle East usually means that you are an indigenous person whose ancestors were there before the Muslim invasions by Arabs and/or Turks.
And being a Muslim in the Balkans means that in the midst of indigenous Christians you are descended from indigenous converts to Islam who collaberated with the Ottomans - with the same ethnicity as your Christian neighbors who are proud they didn’t collaberate.
The indigenous Copts of Egypt remained Christian and are reviled by the majority Muslims for refusing to convert.
There are all kinds of ancient histories attached to religious designations in the Balkans and Middle East.
July 6, 2009, at 3:18 pm
A person who was raised attending church but is now an atheist would be considered a Christian.
This person would be lumped in with the Christians and Jews as part of the people who refuse to convert to Islam.
July 6, 2009, at 3:19 pm
If Neda is Christian, this won’t apply to her. It is a Shia custom.
July 6, 2009, at 4:22 pm
JULIA:
There is a tradition in Eastern Orthodox Christianity of marking the 40th day after the passing of a loved one, as well. So that is no exclusively a Shia tradition. It might more accurately described as an EASTERN tradition?
July 6, 2009, at 4:25 pm
Julia:
That’s certainly reflective of my experience over there. Religion seems to be more of a collective identity than an individual choice in the Middle East. If that’s the case, saying someone in Iran is Christian tells you less about their personal convictions than it does about their cultural background. And, to tie into the theme of this blog, that’s something I didn’t find out from the ‘media’.
July 6, 2009, at 4:50 pm
Even if the practice of turning out on the streets on the 40th day after a death is strictly Shi’ite, the Basij need only kill one Moslem to kick the into motion the cycle that kept alive the protest in 1979. (And I learned this from the mainstream media.)
July 6, 2009, at 5:21 pm
I haven’t been following this story. In fact, I’ve been avoiding most of what apparently captures the media’s/people’s attention back in the States, since I moved to Europe. Because it really is all too much. For the sake of my prayerlife, I had to leave you all behind.
Still, this story is interesting.. I read Neda’s wikipedia entry a couple weeks ago.
I think the media line is that she was shot by a Basij sniper? I was amused to see that the wikipedia entry listed the perpetrator as unknown. Fifteen years ago, before being an Arabic Linguist in the Army, before 9/11, the War, the Latest Banking crisis, yada yada, I would’ve just smiled, and sneered at the innuendo.
Now, I’m not so sure. So, she’s apparently a Christian, is she?
The denizens of the comboxes over at the “Free Republic” are of course free to draw their own inferences.
I, however, think that that detail is a very convenient one.
July 6, 2009, at 6:11 pm
… (Even) if it turns out that she WAS some kind of Christian, and the Iranian population finds out within a month, they may not care that she wasn’t Muslim, and celebrate her anyway. Some people will, anyway. And others will still believe she was Muslim, etc.
Of course, by all accounts, Iran has perhaps the smallest Christian population in the Middle East, except for Saudi Arabia. Most of it’s Christians are Armenian, and there has never been a real Persian Church.
July 6, 2009, at 6:13 pm
In fact, if she is a Christian, that could create greater support for religious freedom in Iran.
July 6, 2009, at 6:14 pm
You might want to check out StrategyPage’s article on Christians in Iran.
link
“…Another serious subject, which the Iranians like to keep quiet about, is the growing number of Iranian Moslems who convert to Christianity. Blocking Farsi language Christianity sites is a big deal. The odd thing is that Christianity was never really big in Iran. Iran’s pre-Christian religion, Zoroastrianism, survived until it was largely replaced by Islam 1,400 years ago, after dominating the country for about 1,500 years. The government is also blocking Farsi language sites about Zoroastrianism, which is becoming more popular in Iran…”
Iran was Zorastrian, not Christian, before Islam came.
July 6, 2009, at 6:49 pm
Old joke:
An American goes to Northern Ireland during the Troubles and walks into a bar and tries to order a drink. The bartender looks at him suspiciously and says, “Are you a Protestant or a Catholic?”
The American replies, “Actually, I’m Jewish.”
The bartender warily shoots back, “OK, but are you a Protestant Jew or a Catholic Jew?”
July 6, 2009, at 10:35 pm
The whole Zoroastrianism thing could end up helping religious freedom in Iran, too.
July 7, 2009, at 12:55 am
[…] hijab would be sufficient evidence to establish that Neda Soltani was a Christian - never mind that the source Bolt linked to for his “Neda the Christian martyr” post pointed out that: To me, this does not look […]
July 7, 2009, at 1:04 am
There is a tradition in Eastern Orthodox Christianity of marking the 40th day after the passing of a loved one, as well
I learn something new every day on this blog. Thanks.
There are certain days when the Jews honor the dead, too.
Shiva for 7 days & Kaddish for 30 days except parents say Kaddish for 11 months. Then there are special remembrance prayers during the first year on Yom Kippur, Shimini Atzeretz, Passover and Shvuot.
Catholics often have a Mass said at the 1 year anniversary and then other days, too, but there is no set pattern. We moderns in the West let a lot of ancient practices die out.
Several years ago I met a Zoroastrian - she was a Parsi from India. Her ancestors fled the Muslims in Persia, NKA Iran. She said there were very many of them left, but more than in Iran.
David Hamstra: In this country you will find that most Norwegians are Lutheran, most Irish are Catholic, etc. etc. Just because a faith is also cultural doesn’t mean the individual person doesn’t believe in it. The free-for-all in religion we enjoy in the US and maybe the UK is unusual in the rest of the world.
Additionally, in Muslim countries a leader for non-Muslim religious groups was designated the representative of those
people. They lumped all the Jews together. They lumped all the Christians together, lapsed or not. I’ve never read of a representative for agnostics and atheists.
July 7, 2009, at 1:06 am
Re: Parsis in India.
She said there were not very many of them left, but more than in Iran
July 7, 2009, at 3:09 am
[…] This post was Twitted by newadvent […]
July 7, 2009, at 10:19 am
[…] Ms Neda the Iranian martyr and a question. Why were all the pictures cropped? Who did that? […]
July 7, 2009, at 10:20 am
[…] Ms Neda the Iranian martyr and a question. Why were all the pictures cropped? Who did that? […]
July 7, 2009, at 11:03 am
and also,
“What makes it “more profound”? - Pure Poison says:
July 7, 2009, at 12:55 am
[…] hijab would be sufficient evidence to establish that Neda Soltani was a Christian ”
well if u thnk shes not muslim just coz she doesnt hav hijab, i’ll tell u it doesnt work like that…in iran they MUST hav hijab in public…but a vast majority of the muslims themselves are without hijab in the private of their own home…
trust me i’ve lived there!!i was born therr!!
July 7, 2009, at 11:25 am
For the record, the article in German says roughly the same thing as the blog post, namely that she was a Christian, and it gives some other well-known details of the story.
As for this, shame on us for hounding the media for more (and truthful!) coverage of this story. Michael Jackson died! Let’s keep our priorities here!
July 7, 2009, at 12:42 pm
Her ancestors fled the Muslims in Persia, and came to India, which was, then, ruled by Muslims! Interesting, isn’t it?!
July 7, 2009, at 5:06 pm
John:
Not all of India was ruled by the Muslims. And I think the Parsis came to India quite a while before the Muslims arrived.
July 7, 2009, at 7:24 pm
[…] around the world originally cropped out the cross she wore around her neck. See the picture and a more complete discussion at Get Religion. As GR points out, the story is not yet complete; the matter of Neda’s faith is not yet […]
July 7, 2009, at 11:30 pm
Caleb, is there anywhere online I can read the original article? I can’t find it at http://www.welt.de.
July 9, 2009, at 5:19 pm
I guess I’m missing the point.
Neda was apparently an amazing woman, but one who didn’t really get involved in politics. According to news media who spoke to her friends and family, she didn’t support any candidate strongly and was never the type to go out and protest. The reason she did is that the thrown election made her angry at the injustice. To me, that doesn’t really have to do with the fact that she was (or was raised) Christian, or even the fact that she is a woman. She was angry at injustice and she spoke out about it.
One of the things that bothers me in the uproar over Iran is the way in which the media has just turned it into this thing that almost has nothing to do with the election anymore. I’m not saying that there aren’t many Iranians who probably want to see a lot of change in their country - but the majority of protesters simply voted for a more reformist candidate, and just want their votes to be counted. They want a government that will pay attention to the election process…but that doesn’t automatically mean that they support a complete regime change a la Western enlightenment. It also really doesn’t seem to be about religion - at least from what I have read and the Iranians I’ve spoken to, and I could be completely wrong here. The only reason most protesters are speaking out against government interpretation of Islam is because the government is being unjust. And Christians, Jews, and Muslims are all compelled to speak out against injustice.
July 10, 2009, at 4:02 am
[…] GetReligion writes about Neda Agha Soltani’s martyrdom. […]
July 10, 2009, at 7:05 pm
A friend of mine who was arrested and detained for several months because of leading a house-church in Iran was told during the interrogation that (….you(means all of you evangelists) had committed treason against islam by converting 2-3 millions young people in just a few years…).
the fact is there has been an increasing number of new converts to Christianity in recent years in Iran.
In the other hand…since all house-churches has been under surveillance and investigation by intelligent services and almost all of new converts has been known by government,speaking about Neda’s belief or spreading this news about she being a Christian (whether right or wrong) will put all her Church members in serious danger because the intelligent service will attempt to destroy all evidence and witnesses! about her faith..
for these reason no one would speak out about her faith.
on the contrary ..having a cross necklace does not mean necessarily that she was Christian. Many people uses a cross in their home ,cars,….these days.
Government had not released the body and asked for “bullet-fee” (about 8000$).
“Bullet-fee” = According to islamic republic laws when they kill a person they ask the family for expenses before releasing the body.