[New York, July 30. Image via Getty]

NEW YORK - JULY 30: Demonstrators gather in Union Square to mark the 40th day since the death Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman who was killed during post-election protests last month in Tehran on July 30, 2009 in New York City. The violent death of Neda has become an international rallying cry for individuals opposed to the election results in Iran. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The 40th day after a death is significant in Islamic tradition, and 40-day cycles of mourning for martyrs were a key part of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Today protesters are gathering at Neda's grave and several other locations in Tehran. "At least 2,000" people have come together at a prayer location called the Grand Mosala, despite being denied permission to hold a rally there. Witnesses report that Iranian police are using tear gas, arresting Moussavi supporters, and smashing car windows in an effort to quell the protests. Reportedly among the protesters is Neda's mother, Hajar Rostami Motlagh, who spoke with the BBC in an interview published today.

Of her daughter's motivation for joining the gathering at which she was shot, Motlagh says,

It was all about being young and feeling passionate about freedom. She wasn't political. She didn't belong to any party or group. She didn't support any faction. Every other young Iranian was there - and she was one of them. [...] You can't blame young people for going out and wanting to feel free.

Throughout the interview, she seems to take care not to ascribe political motivations to Neda, or to reveal them herself. When asked if her daughter's death politicized her, she says,

No, not really. No. I can't tell you if her death has turned me into a political person. I am still in shock. In pain. I can't think about anything except her.

And when the interviewer asks if it's important to her that Neda's death be investigated, she answers, "Yes, because Mr Ahmadinejad has ordered an investigation." She does mention that while she has not spoken to opposition candidate Mir Husein Moussavi, "Mr Karroubi - the other opposition figure" has visited her. She says, "he was very supportive and I found that comforting." Despite her general avoidance of political statements, Motlagh does say,

knowing that the world cried for [Neda] … that has comforted me. I am proud of her. The world sees her as a symbol, and that makes me happy.

Today, Neda is a symbol of Iranians' outrage at an unfair election, and at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who will be officially approved as president in a ceremony Monday. But for Motlagh, today's mourning will obviously be personal as well as political. The most heart-wrenching part of her interview is when she talks about meeting with the mothers of other young people slain at postelection gatherings. She says,

Emotionally we are all broken. What can we say to each other? Our loved ones were too young to die… what can three mothers in the same situation say to each other? All we can do is just sit there and cry.

Interview: Mother's Tribute To Neda [BBC]
Iran Election Protests: The Dead, Jailed And Missing [Guardian]
Updates On Post-Election Protests In Iran [NYT]
Iran Protests To Honour The Dead [Guardian]
Iranians Gather In Tehran To Commemorate Unrest Victims [Reuters]
Iran Police Clash With Mourners [BBC]
Ahmadinejad To Be Approved As President August 3 [Press TV]

Ghadiri explained,

These are the bullets that the CIA and terrorist groups use. Of course they warned that there would be a bloodshed in these demonstrations and then they could attribute that to the Islamic republic. This is part of a common act of CIA in various countries.

He wouldn't lay the blame directly at the feet of the CIA, instead saying,

I'm not saying that the CIA had done this. There are different groups. Could be intelligence services, could be CIA, could be the terrorists. However, these are the people who do these things.

Ghadiri's equivocation aside, it's clear that the Iranian government is trying to turn the outrage over Neda's death away from itself and onto its adversaries. In an odd turn of events, another source of information about the killing turns out to be Brazilian novelist Paul Coelho, who happens to be friends with the doctor who saved Neda. Coelho recognized Dr. Arash Hejazi in the video of Neda's death, and began an e-mail exchange; the e-mails are published in the Times of London. Hejazi writes,

The video of Neda's murder was taken by my friend, and you can recognize me in the video. I was the doctor who tried to save her and failed. She died in my arms. I am writing with tears in my eyes.

In a later message, he says,

Trying to leave the country tomorrow morning. If I don't arrive in London at 2 pm, something has happened to me. Till then, wait. Please wait till tomorrow. If something happens to me, please take care of my wife and son, they are there, alone, and have no one else in the world.

Luckily, Hejazi did arrive in London, but his fear speaks to the repressiveness of the Iranian regime, especially in the wake of Neda's death. Ghadiri told Blitzer,

We have no problem with mournings. Naturally we don't want to provide an opportunity for the rioters to come in and make the situation worse.

But guards at Neda's grave are making it difficult for Iranians to gather and talk to one another there. Mourners are visiting the grave anyway, but one says,

Now the military has taken the power and prevents us from paying our respects. It's not a big request! We want respect to Neda.

Speaking for all Iranians during this chaotic time, he also says, "All of us are in danger, like Neda."

Image by artist Tim O'Brien.

"The CIA Killed Neda" [Daily Dish]
Emails Between Doctor At Iran Shooting And Writer Who Posted Video [TimesOnline]
Iranians Pay Respects At Neda Agha-Soltan's Grave [LA Times]

• Also, in a confusing statement, the Iranian state-run news network is claiming that an extreme Marxist group killed Neda because they thought she was a terrorist's sister. The network says the killers "thought that they were targeting one of the government opposition people, and that is why they immediately distributed the video of the aftermath of the killing through the official and unofficial media in order to reach their murderous objectives against the Iranian government and revolution." Right. • A strange ring of smoke recently appeared in the sky over an amusement park in Eastern Virginia. The UFO-like ring may have been caused by one of the rides, but it has yet to be fully explained. • Government officials in the UK have decided not to lower the screening age for cervical cancer from 25, because they say lowering the age could lead to too many false positive results. • The BBC has apologize after tennis player Elena Baltacha was heard screaming a four-letter word (starts with f) in frustration during her first round match at Wimbledon this week. After she won the match, Baltacha admitted that she felt rather "emotional," but she was always determined to win. • A woman from North Dakota has plead guilty to drunkenly feeding her six-week-old baby. She was charged with child neglect after giving her baby the breast milk cocktail (the original White Russian?), but she will not be forced to register as an offender against children. • "Bra banks" in the UK allow women to donate their unwanted bras, which are very difficult to recycle, to other women in need. There's even one at the Houses of Parliament. • A Connecticut church is drawing criticism after it posted footage on YouTube of a violent exorcism intended to drive a ''homosexual demon'' from the body of a 16-year-old boy. • Now that women make up 20% of the Air Force, more dads are staying home with their kids while moms fight in Iraq or Afghanistan. • A study has found that Girl Scout meetings can be an ideal place to teach healthy diet and exercise habits — hopefully this won't result in the Girl Scouts eliminating delicious Thin Mints. • Hollywood Madam Michelle Braun allegedly charged almost $50,000 — far more than Heidi Fleiss — for a night with one of her escorts. But does the Daily Fail have to call them a "stable"? • According to a US News & World Report blogger, keeping money separate can help couples avoid conflict. • The newest demeaning and overgeneralized term to describe male behavior is "neosexual," which apparently refers to a guy who has "shrugged off the femininity of the metrosexual and returned to his more masculine, primitive roots." • Rainbow party alert! A study found that one in five teens engage in sexting, and one in four "knew someone who had a bad experience because of information posted on the Internet." •

"Neda," whose full name is said to be Neda Agha-Soltan, was fatally shot Saturday, allegedly by Iranian paramilitary forces, and her death was captured on a video that is now circulating widely on the web. While the banning of foreign journalists from Tehran still makes getting clear information difficult, sources say the young woman was a philosophy student born in 1982.

Blogger Nico Pitney says a rally commemorating her death is planned in central Tehran today, and that, "This could get explosive." An Iranian Twitter user agrees:

Soon Mousavi [the Iranian opposition candidate, whom the contested election results have declared the loser] will announce full national strikes, probably starting with Petrochemical - prepare for this... Expect food shortage - transport stoppage - money shortage in bank... Gov will respond with electric power cuts - prepare and have gas cylinders at home or gasoline for light/cooking... People of Iran - THIS IS THE DAWN - This is the new begining - have hope and prepare.

According to Time's Robin Wright, Iranian traditions of mourning and martyrdom — traditions also key to the 1979 Iranian revolution — are coming into play following Neda's death. Wright says,

the cycles of mourning in Shiite Islam actually provide a schedule for political combat - a way to generate or revive momentum. Shiite Muslims mourn their dead on the third, seventh and 40th days after a death, and these commemorations are a pivotal part of Iran's rich history. During the revolution, the pattern of confrontations between the shah's security forces and the revolutionaries often played out in 40-day cycles.

She also writes,

The commemorations for "Neda" and the others killed this weekend are still to come. And the 40th day events are usually the largest and most important.

Wright's article closes a with a reminder that the revolutionaries of 1979, who deposed the Shah and helped make Iran an Islamic republic, are now the ones in power, trying to quell revolution. "The revolutionaries exploited the deep passion about martyrdom as well as the timetable of Shiite mourning in whipping up greater opposition to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi," she writes. "With the deaths of "Neda" and others, they may now find the same phenomena used against them." If this is true — if Neda's death does herald "a new beginning" for Iran, let's hope it's the beginning of freedom, and not just another skirmish in a thirty-year cycle of bloodshed. And let's hope — even though this seems unlikely — that no more demonstrators are hurt in their pursuit of this freedom.

In Iran, One Woman's Death May Have Many Consequences [Time]
Neda: An Unintended Symbol [CBS]
The Making Of A Martyr [Daily Dish]
In Iran, One Woman - Neda - Becomes A Symbol [USA Today]
TODAY'S NEWS [Mir Hossein Mousavi Official Site]
Neda [Crooks & Liars Video Cafe]
Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising [Huffington Post]

Earlier: "Neda Is My Daughter, I Have One Just Like Her"