NEDA SOLTANI, THE FACE OF IRANIAN DEMOCRATIC STRUGGLE!

As Neda Soltani pays the supreme sacrifice with her blood, protesting the emasculation of democracy in Iran, Icheoku says, the Iranian people must not allow her death to be in vain. She is the stuff, heroines are made of and we hope she is accorded that recognition with some form of immortalization?

Irrespective of how the current political imbroglio is eventually finally resolved, Ms. Neda has proved with her life that certain things are worth dying for; and having died for democracy in Iran, she will forever be remembered by democratic enthusiasts world-wide particularly in Iran as that brave lady who laid down her life for the sake of democracy.

Did she die well? You bet! Did she lay down her life for a just cause? We think so! Everybody, including all those mullahs of Tehran will someday die including the trigger-happy rogue state-agent who surreptitiously fired the shot that took the life of Neda Soltani. To die is to make that needed transition, so let her family not grieve so much as she has now moved on to the next realm. For the grieving family, we say, please accept our condolence and know that Neda died for a worthy cause. Icheoku says, it shall not be well for all those 'leaders' of this world who use brute force to maintain their stranglehold on power; and even kill their people just to remain in power. Should Neda have died for peacefully protesting what she believed to be a sham election? No, but in a tyrannical society where brute force rules, anything goes?

Icheoku condemns the Iranian government's refusal for the family of Neda Soltani to publicly mourn the loss of their daughter, as a vindictive act of aggression on a dead Iranian person. She is dead already, killed by her Iranian government, so why deny her a right to a public funeral as desired by her family? The issue of public security or safety should have not triumphed the need to accord respect to the dead; so the Iranian authorities would have saturated the funeral cortege with their security operatives and allow Neda to be buried as pleasing to her family and not hamstring it. To the new face of Iranian democratic struggle, Icheoku says, Adieu brave lady and may your Allah receive your gentle soul in paradise!