Mona and Neda, the precious Iranian angels, were both murdered in cold-blood on a Saturday in June, but decades apart.
Mona Mahmudnizhad (September 10, 1965 – June 18, 1983)
Neda Agha-Soltan (January 23, 1982 – June 20, 2009)
No more please. Enough is enough.
Neda Agha-Soltan, the angel of Tehran, a 26 Year old woman, was murdered last year because when Mona Mahmudnizhad, the angel of Shiraz, a 17 year old girl, had gotten murdered 27 years earlier, Iranians did not make a vow that it would never happen again.
In the next few days there will be a number of blogs written about Neda, so I’ll focus mostly on Mona here.
Mona and 9 other women were put to death in Shiraz in 1983. Her father had been hanged 3 months earlier. Most Iranians didn’t know about Mona, or didn’t care about her, or didn’t care to know about her.
Even if we were too young at the time, our parents weren’t.
Unfortunately, most of us Iranians did not hear the sound of Mona’s neck breaking when she was hanged and, after spending 9500 days and nights in oblivion, it took the sound of the gun whose bullet pierced Neda’s heart to finally awaken us.
Those who are now awake, please wake up the ones who might still be asleep. Let us be kind to the next generation and protect them from the unnecessary pain and suffering. Iranians do not deserve this relentless violence against them.
I’m listing a few links that will provide additional information about Mona’s life and untimely death. I hope that most of the readers would take the time to learn about her and celebrate her short-lived life.
Background and biography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Mahmudnizhad
http://question.bahai.org/004_1.php
Musical tributes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSoxzHxjAYs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ-UxEbuPag
Let us promise that we would never forget the likes of Neda and Mona. Let us do our best to put an end to all these atrocities. We are better than this.
Cleary when we don’t learn from history, it keeps repeating itself. We’ve already had too many unpleasant learning opportunities. Are we learning anything yet?
This time around, let us as a nation make a vow: Never Again!
Let’s promise that we will no longer turn a blind eye to human cruelty.
God bless the beautiful souls of Neda, Mona, and countless other innocent Iranians who’ve been murdered in utter callousness.
Never Again!
With love and prayers for all innocent victims,
Anvar
