Female (♀) is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova (egg cells).

Defining characteristics

The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male. A female individual cannot reproduce sexually without access to the gametes of a male (an exception is parthenogenesis). Some organisms can reproduce both sexually and asexually.

There is no single genetic mechanism behind sex differences in different species and the existence of two sexes seems to have evolved multiple times independently in different evolutionary lineages. The repeated pattern is sexual reproduction in isogamous species with two or more mating types with gametes of identical form and behavior (but different at the molecular level) to anisogamous species with gametes of male and female types to oogamous species in which the female gamete is very much larger than the male and has no ability to move. There is an argument that this pattern was driven by the physical constraints on the mechanisms by which two gametes get together as required for sexual reproduction.

Other than the defining difference in the type of gamete produced, differences between males and females in one lineage cannot always be predicted by differences in another. The concept is not limited to animals; egg cells are produced by chytrids, diatoms, water moulds and land plants, among others. In land plants, ''female'' and ''male'' designate not only the egg- and sperm-producing organisms and structures, but also the structures of the sporophytes that give rise to male and female plants.

Etymology and usage

The word female comes from the Latin ''femella'', the diminutive form of ''femina'', meaning "woman," which is not actually related to the word "male." In the late 14th century, the English spelling was altered so that the word paralleled the spelling of "male."

Mammalian female

The distinguishing characteristic of the class ''Mammalia'' is the presence of mammary glands. The mammary glands are modified sweat glands that produce milk, which is used to feed the young during the period of time shortly after birth. Only mammals have the capacity to produce milk. The presence of mammary glands is most obvious on humans, due to the tendency of the female human body to store large amounts of fatty tissue near the nipples, resulting in prominent breasts, although today some human females also surgically augment their breast size. However, mammary glands are present in all mammals, although they are vestigial in the male of the species.

The mammalian female is characterized by having two copies of the X chromosome as opposed to the male which carries only one X and one smaller Y chromosome. To compensate for the difference in size, one of the female's X chromosomes is randomly inactivated in each cell. In birds, by contrast, it is the female who is heterozygous and carries a Z and a W chromosome whilst the male carries two Z chromosomes.

Mammalian females are characterized in that they all bear live young (with the rare exception of monotremes, which lay eggs). This is not totally unique, as some animals, such as guppies have analogous reproductive structures. In addition, some other non-mammalian animals, such as sharks, whose eggs hatch inside their bodies also have the appearance of bearing live young.

Symbol

A common symbol used to represent the female sex is ♀ (Unicode: U+2640 Alt codes: Alt+12), a circle with a small cross underneath. According to Schott, the most established view is that the male and female symbols "are derived from contractions in Greek script of the Greek names of these planets, namely Thouros (Mars) and Phosphoros (Venus). These derivations have been traced by Renkama who illustrated how Greek letters can be transformed into the graphic male and female symbols still recognised today." Thouros was abbreviated by θρ, and Phosphoros by Φκ, which were contracted into the modern symbols.

Sex determination

The sex of a particular organism may be determined by a number of factors. These may be genetic or environmental, or may naturally change during the course of an organism's life. Although most species with male and female sexes have individuals that are either male or female, hermaphroditic animals have both male and female reproductive organs.

Genetic determination

Most mammals, including humans, are genetically determined as such by the XY sex-determination system where males have an XY (as opposed to XX) sex chromosome. During reproduction, a male can give either an X sperm or a Y sperm, while a female can only give an X egg. A Y sperm and an X egg produce a boy, while an X sperm and an X egg produce a girl. The ZW sex-determination system, where males have a ZZ (as opposed to ZW) sex chromosome may be found in birds and some insects and other organisms. Members of Hymenoptera, such as ants and bees, are determined by haplodiploidy, where most males are haploid and females and some sterile males are diploid.

Environmental determination

Some species develop into one sex or the other depending on local environmental conditions, e.g. many crocodilians' sex is influenced by the temperature of their eggs. Other species (such as the goby) are capable of transforming, as adults, from one sex to the other in response to local reproductive conditions (such as a shortage of males). In humans and most mammals, sex is determined chromosomally—a Y sperm will produce a male offspring and an X sperm a female.

See also

Dakini

Femininity

Feminine side

Gestation

Girl

Lactation

Male

Transwoman

Transman

Woman

Womyn

Sources

Ayers, Donald M. English Words from Latin and Greek Elements. Second Edition. 1986. University of Arizona Press. United States.

References

Category:Gender Category:Sex Category:Women

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Coordinates	51°12′″N58°34′″N
name	Madeleine Albright
order	64th
title	United States Secretary of State
term start	January 23, 1997
term end	January 20, 2001
predecessor	Warren Christopher
successor	Colin Powell
president	Bill Clinton
order2	20th
title2	United States Ambassador to the United Nations
term start2	January 27, 1993
term end2	January 21, 1997
president2	Bill Clinton
predecessor2	Edward J. Perkins
successor2	Bill Richardson
birthname	Marie Jana Korbelová
birth date	May 15, 1937
birth place	Prague, Czechoslovakia
nationality	Czech, American
party	Democratic
spouse	Joseph Medill Patterson Albright (1959-1982; divorced)
children	3 daughters - twins Anne and Alice, and Katherine (Katie)
alma mater	Wellesley College (B.A.)Columbia University (M.A., Ph.D.)
profession	Diplomat
signature	Madeleine Albright Signature.svg
religion	Episcopalian Christian
footnotes	}}

Madeleine Korbel Albright (born May 15, 1937) is the first woman to become a United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99-0. She was sworn in on January 23, 1997.

Albright now serves as a Professor of International Relations at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service. Her PhD is from Columbia University. She holds honorary degrees from Brandeis University (1996); the University of Washington (2002); Smith College (2003); University of Winnipeg (2005); the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2007), and Knox College (2008). Secretary Albright also serves as a Director on the Board of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Albright is fluent in English, French, Russian, and Czech; she speaks and reads Polish and Serbo-Croatian as well.

Personal

Early life

Albright was born Marie Jana Korbelová () in the Smíchov district of Prague, Czechoslovakia. At the time of her birth, Czechoslovakia had been independent for less than twenty years, having gained independence from Austria after World War I. Her father, Josef Korbel, was a Jewish Czech diplomat and supporter of the early Czech democrats, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Beneš. She was his first child with his Jewish wife, Anna (''née'' Spieglová), who later also had another daughter Katherine (a schoolteacher) and son John (an economist).

At the time of Albright’s birth, her father was serving as press-attaché at the Czechoslovak Embassy in Belgrade. However, the signing of the Munich Agreement in March 1938 and the disintegration of Czechoslovakia at the hands of Adolf Hitler forced the family into exile because of their links with Beneš. Prior to their flight, Albright's parents had converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism. Albright spent the war years in England, while her father worked for Beneš’s Czechoslovak government-in-exile. They first lived on Kensington Park Road in Notting Hill, London, where they endured the worst of The Blitz, but later moved to Beaconsfield, then Walton-on-Thames, on the outskirts of London. While in England, a young Albright appeared as a refugee child in a film designed to promote sympathy for all war refugees in London.

Albright was raised Catholic, but converted to Episcopalianism at the time of her marriage in 1959. Albright did not learn until late in life that her parents were Jewish and that many of her Jewish relatives in Czechoslovakia perished in The Holocaust, including three of her grandparents.

After the defeat of the Nazis in the European Theatre of World War II and the collapse of Nazi Germany and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Albright and family moved back to Prague, where they were given a luxurious apartment in the Hradcany district (which later caused controversy, as it had belonged to an ethnic German Bohemian industrialist family forced out by the Beneš decrees - see "Controversies"). Korbel was named Czechoslovak Ambassador to communist Yugoslavia, and the family moved to Belgrade. Communists governed Yugoslavia, and Korbel was concerned his daughter would be indoctrinated with Marxist ideology in a Yugoslav school, so she was taught by a governess and later sent to the Prealpina Institut pour Jeunes Filles in Chexbres, on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Here, she learned French and went by Madeleine, the French version of Madlenka, her Czech nickname.

However, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia took over the government in 1948, with support from the Soviet Union, and as an opponent of Communism, Korbel was forced to resign from his position. He later obtained a position on a United Nations delegation to Kashmir, and sent his family to the United States, by way of London, to wait for him when he arrived to deliver his report to the U.N. Headquarters, then in Lake Success, New York. The family arrived in New York City, New York, in November 1948, and initially settled in Great Neck, on Long Island, New York. Korbel applied for political asylum, arguing that as an opponent of Communism, he was now under threat in Prague. With the help of Philip Mosely, a professor of Russian at Columbia University in New York City, Korbel obtained a position on the staff of the political science department at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado. He became dean of the university’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies, and later taught future U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Life in the United States

Albright spent her teen years in Denver, and graduated from the Kent Denver School in Cherry Hills Village, a suburb of Denver, in 1955, where she founded the school’s international relations club and was its first president. She attended Wellesley College, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, on a full scholarship, majoring in political science and graduated in 1959. Her senior thesis was written on Czech Communist Zdeněk Fierlinger. She became a U.S. citizen in 1957, and joined the College Democrats of America.

While home in Denver from Wellesley, Albright worked as an intern for ''The Denver Post'', where she met Joseph Medill Patterson Albright, the nephew of Alicia Patterson, owner of ''Newsday'' and wife of philanthropist Harry Frank Guggenheim. The couple were married in Wellesley in 1959, shortly after her graduation. They lived first in Rolla, Missouri, while he served his military service at nearby Fort Leonard Wood. During this time, she worked at the ''Rolla Daily News''.

In January 1960 the couple moved to his hometown of Chicago, Illinois, where he worked at the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' as a journalist, and Albright worked as a picture editor for ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. The following year, Joseph Albright began work at ''Newsday'' in New York City, and the couple moved to Garden City on Long Island. That year, she gave birth to twin daughters, Alice Patterson Albright and Anne Korbel Albright. The twins were born six weeks premature, and required a long hospital stay, so as a distraction, Albright began Russian classes at Hofstra University in Village of Hempstead, New York.

In 1962, the family moved to Georgetown in Washington, D.C., and Albright began studying international relations and continued studying Russian at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC. However, in 1963 Alicia Patterson died, and the family returned to Long Island with the notion of Joseph taking over the family business. Albright gave birth to another daughter, Katherine Medill Albright, in 1967, and continued her studies at Columbia University's Department of Public Law and Government (later renamed as the political science department, which is located within the School of International and Public Affairs). She earned a certificate in Russian, a Masters of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy, writing her Master's thesis on the Soviet diplomatic corps, and her doctoral dissertation on the role of journalists in the Prague Spring of 1968. She also took a graduate course given by Zbigniew Brzezinski, who would later be her boss at the U.S. National Security Council.

Career

Early career

Albright returned to Washington in 1968, and commuted to Columbia for her PhD, which she received in 1975. She began fund-raising for her daughters' school, involvement which led to several positions on education boards. She was eventually invited to organize a fund-raising dinner for the 1972 presidential campaign of U.S. Senator Ed Muskie of Maine. This association with Muskie led to a position as his chief legislative assistant in 1976. However, after the 1976 U.S. presidential election of Jimmy Carter, Albright's former professor Brzezinski was named National Security Advisor, and recruited Albright from Muskie in 1978 to work in the West Wing as the National Security Council’s congressional liaison. Following Carter's loss in 1980 to Ronald Reagan, Albright moved on to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where she was given a grant for a research project. She chose to write on the dissident journalists involved in Poland's Solidarity movement, then in its infancy but gaining international attention. She traveled to Poland for her research, interviewing dissidents in Gdansk, Warsaw and Krakow. Upon her return to Washington, her husband announced his intention to divorce her for another woman.

Albright joined the academic staff at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 1982, specializing in Eastern European studies. She has also directed the University's program on women in global politics. She has also served as a major Democratic Party foreign policy advisor, and briefed Vice-Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988 (both campaigns ended in defeat). In 1992, Bill Clinton returned the White House to the Democratic Party, and Albright was employed to handle the transition to a new administration at the National Security Council. In January 1993, Clinton nominated her to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, her first diplomatic posting.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

Albright was appointed Ambassador to the United Nations, her first diplomatic post, shortly after Clinton was inaugurated, presenting her credentials on February 9, 1993. During her tenure at the U.N., she had a rocky relationship with the U.N. Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, whom she criticized as "disengaged" and "neglect[ful]" of genocide in Rwanda. Albright wrote:

My deepest regret from my years in public service is the failure of the United States and the international community to act sooner to halt these crimes.

In ''Shake Hands with the Devil,'' Roméo Dallaire claims that in 1994, in Albright's role as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N., she avoided describing the killings in Rwanda as "genocide" until overwhelmed by the evidence for it; this is now how she describes these massacres in her memoirs. She was instructed to support a reduction or withdrawal (something which never happened) of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Rwanda but was later given more flexibility. Albright later remarked in PBS documentary ''Ghosts of Rwanda'' that

it was a very, very difficult time, and the situation was unclear. You know, in retrospect, it all looks very clear. But when you were [there] at the time, it was unclear about what was happening in Rwanda."

Also in 1996, after Cuban military pilots shot down two small civilian aircraft flown by the Cuban-American exile group Brothers to the Rescue over international waters, she announced, "This is not cojones. This is cowardice." The line endeared her to President Clinton, who said it was "probably the most effective one-liner in the whole administration's foreign policy."

On May 12, 1996, Albright defended UN sanctions against Iraq on a ''60 Minutes'' segment in which Lesley Stahl asked her "We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?" and Albright replied "we think the price is worth it." Albright later criticized Stahl's segment as "amount[ing] to Iraqi propaganda"; said that her question was a loaded question; wrote "I had fallen into a trap and said something I did not mean"; and regretted coming "across as cold-blooded and cruel". Sanctions critics took Albright's failure to reframe the question as confirmation of the statistic. The segment won an Emmy Award.

Secretary of State

When Albright took office as the 64th U.S. Secretary of State on January 23, 1997, she became the first female U.S. Secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government. Not being a natural-born citizen of the U.S., she was not eligible as U.S. Presidential successor and was excluded from nuclear contingency plans. In her position as Secretary of State, Albright reinforced the U.S.'s alliances; advocated democracy and human rights; and promoted American trade and business, labor and environmental standards abroad.

During her tenure, Albright considerably influenced American policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Middle East. She incurred the wrath of a number of Serbs in the former Yugoslavia for her role in participating in the formulation of US policy during the Kosovo War and Bosnian war as well as the rest of the Balkans. But, together with President Bill Clinton, she remains a largely popular figure in the rest of the region, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Croatia. According to Albright's memoirs, she once argued with Colin Powell for the use of military force by asking, "What’s the point of you saving this superb military for, Colin, if we can't use it?"

As Secretary of State she represented the U.S. at the Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997. She boycotted the swearing-in ceremony of the China-appointed Hong Kong Legislative Council, which replaced the elected one, along with the British contingents.

According to several accounts, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Prudence Bushnell repeatedly asked Washington for additional security at the embassy in Nairobi, including in an April 1998 letter directly to Albright. Bushnell was ignored. In "Against All Enemies," Richard Clarke writes about an exchange with Albright several months after the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed in August 1998. "What do you think will happen if you lose another embassy?" Clarke asked. "The Republicans in Congress will go after you." "First of all, I didn't lose these two embassies," Albright shot back. "I inherited them in the shape they were." Albright was booed in 1998 when the brief war threat with Iraq revealed that citizens were opposed to such an invasion, although this is often overlooked.

In 1998, at the NATO summit, Albright articulated what would become known as the "three Ds" of NATO, "which is no diminution of NATO, no discrimination and no duplication—because I think that we don't need any of those three "Ds" to happen."

Both Bill Clinton and Albright insisted that an attack on Hussein could be stopped only if Hussein reversed his decision to halt arms inspections. "Iraq has a simple choice. Reverse course or face the consequences," Albright said.

In 2000, Albright became one of the highest level Western diplomats ever to meet Kim Jong-il, the communist leader of North Korea, during an official state visit to that country.

In one of her last acts as Secretary of State, Albright on January 8, 2001, paid a farewell call on Kofi Annan and said that the U.S. would continue to press Iraq to destroy all its weapons of mass destruction as a condition of lifting economic sanctions, even after the end of the Clinton administration on January 20, 2001.

Post-2001 career

Following Albright's term as Secretary of State, many speculated that she might pursue a career in Czech politics. Czech President Václav Havel talked openly about the possibility of Albright succeeding him after he retired in 2002. Albright was reportedly flattered by suggestions that she should run for office, but denied ever seriously considering it. She was the second recipient of the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award presented by the Prague Society for International Cooperation.

In 2001, Albright was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The same year, she founded the Albright Group, an international strategy consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. It has Coca-Cola, Merck, Dubai Ports World, and Marsh & McLennan Companies among its clients, who benefit from the access that Albright has through her global contacts. Affiliated with the firm is Albright Capital Management, which was founded in 2005 to engage in private fund management related to emerging markets.

Albright currently serves on the Council on Foreign Relations Board of directors and on the International Advisory Committee of the Brookings Doha Center. She is also currently the Mortara Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy at the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C..

In 2003, she accepted a position on the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange. In 2005, Albright declined to run for re-election to the board in the aftermath of the Richard Grasso compensation scandal, in which Grasso, the chairman of the NYSE Board of Directors, had been granted $187.5 million in compensation, with little governance by the board on which Albright sat. During the tenure of the interim chairman, John S. Reed, Albright served as chairwoman of the NYSE board's nominating and governance committee. Shortly after the appointment of the NYSE board's permanent chairman in 2005, Albright submitted her resignation.

On October 25, 2005, Albright guest starred on the television drama ''Gilmore Girls'' as herself.

On January 5, 2006, she participated in a meeting at the White House of former Secretaries of Defense and State to discuss U.S. foreign policy with George W. Bush administration officials. On May 5, 2006, she was again invited to the White House to meet with former Secretaries and Bush administration officials to discuss Iraq.

Albright currently serves as chairperson of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and as president of the Truman Scholarship Foundation. She is also the co-chair of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor and held the Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders ''Women's Ministerial Initiative'' up until November 16, 2007, succeeded by Margot Wallström.

In an interview given to ''Newsweek International'' published July 24, 2006, Albright gave her opinion on current U.S. foreign policy. Albright said: "I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid that Iraq is going to turn out to be the greatest disaster in American foreign policy—worse than Vietnam."

In September 2006, she received the Menschen in Europa Award, with Václav Havel, for furthering the cause of international understanding.

Albright has mentioned her physical fitness and exercise regimen in several interviews. She has said she is capable of leg pressing 400 pounds.

At the National Press Club in Washington on November 13, 2007, Albright declared that she with William Cohen would co-chair a new "Genocide Prevention Task Force" created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the United States Institute for Peace. Their appointment was criticized by Harut Sassounian and the Armenian National Committee of America.

On May 13, 2007, two days before her 70th birthday, Albright received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Albright endorsed and supported Hillary Clinton in her 2008 campaign for U.S. President. Albright has been a close friend of Clinton and serves as her top informal advisor on foreign policy matters. She is currently serving as a top advisor for U.S. President Barack Obama in a working group on national security. On December 1, 2008, then-President-elect Obama nominated then-Senator Clinton for Albright's former post of Secretary of State.

In September 2009, Albright opened an exhibition of her personal jewelry collection at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City, which ran until January 2010. The collection highlighted the many pins she wore while serving at the United Nations and State Department, including the famous pin showing a snake and apple she wore after the Iraqi press called her "an unparalleled serpent", and several jeweled insect bugs she wore to meet the Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov after it was discovered the Russian secret service had attempted to bug the State Department.

World Justice Project

Madeleine Albright serves as an Honorary Chair for the World Justice Project. The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.

The Hague Institute for Global Justice

Madeleine Albright serves as Chair of the advisory council for The Hague Institute for Global Justice, which was founded in 2011 in The Hague.

Controversies

Art ownership controversy

Following the Washington Post's profile of Albright by Michael Dobbs, an Austrian man, Philipp Harmer, launched legal action against Albright, claiming Josef Korbel had illegally taken possession of artwork which belonged to his great-grandfather, Karl Nebrich. Nebrich, a German-speaking Prague industrialist, was forced to abandon some of his possessions when ethnic Germans were expelled from the country after WWII under the Beneš decrees. His apartment, at 11 Hradčanská Street in Prague, was subsequently given to Korbel and his family, which they occupied before also being forced to flee to America. Harmer felt Korbel stole his great-grandfather's artwork, which was left in the apartment. The matter was handled by Albright's brother, John Korbel.

Radovan Karadžić

During his first hearing in front of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Radovan Karadžić stated that Albright along with Richard Holbrooke offered him a deal which would allow him avoid prosecution for asserted war crimes if he leaves public life and politics. According to Karadžić, Albright offered him a chance to relocate to Russia, Greece, or Serbia and open a private clinic, or to go to Bijeljina. Karadžić was quoted as saying that Holbrooke or Albright would like to see him disappear and expressed the fear for his life by saying "I do not know how long the arm of Mr Holbrooke or Mrs Albright is ... or whether that arm can reach me here."

Books

''Madam Secretary'' (2003) -- Albright's memoir, published after her retirement,

''The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs'' (2006)

''Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership'' (2008)

''Read My Pins'' (2009).

References

Bibliography

Primary Sources

External links

''Madam Secretary'' The Madeleine Albright Memoir

''Voices on Antisemitism'' Interview with Madeleine Albright from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Portrait of Madeleine Albright – Madeleine Albright interviewed by Ulysse Gosset on France 24 - The Talk of Paris Show

Official biography at State Department site

Sample chapter and audio interview about ''The Mighty and the Almighty'' (Official publisher web page)

1997 commencement speech, Mount Holyoke College

2003 commencement speech, Smith College

2007 commencement speech, Wellesley College

Address at DePauw University, September 19, 2008 (with video clips)

Chapter excerpts and audio interview about foreign policy (Official publisher web page)

Madeleine Albright Co-Chair Genocide Prevention Task Force

Audio recording of Albright's talk, "The Mighty and the Almighty," as part of the University of Chicago World Beyond the Headlines series.

Estimates of Iraqi deaths during sanctions

Category:American women in business Category:American Episcopalians

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ar:مادلين أولبرايت bn:ম্যাডেলিন অলব্রাইট zh-min-nan:Madeleine Albright be:Мадлен Олбрайт be-x-old:Мадлен Олбрайт bg:Мадлин Олбрайт ca:Madeleine Albright cs:Madeleine Albrightová da:Madeleine Albright de:Madeleine Albright et:Madeleine Albright es:Madeleine Albright fa:مادلین آلبرایت fo:Madeleine Albright fr:Madeleine Albright ko:매들린 올브라이트 hr:Madeleine Albright id:Madeleine Albright it:Madeleine Albright he:מדליין אולברייט lv:Madlēna Olbraita lt:Madeleine Albright hu:Madeleine Albright mk:Медeлин Олбрајт Kорбел nl:Madeleine Albright ne:मेडलिन अलब्राइट ja:マデレーン・オルブライト no:Madeleine Albright pl:Madeleine Albright pt:Madeleine Albright ro:Madeleine Albright ru:Олбрайт, Мадлен sq:Madeleine Albright simple:Madeleine Albright sk:Madeleine Albrightová sr:Медлин Олбрајт sh:Madeleine Albright fi:Madeleine Albright sv:Madeleine Albright tr:Madeleine Albright vi:Madeleine K. Albright zh:马德琳·奥尔布赖特

Zeynab Jalalian, (, born ca. 1982) is an Iranian Kurdish activist who has been convicted and sentenced to death by an Islamic Revolutionary Court for allegedly being a member of the Kurdish militant group PJAK.

When Jalalian was ten years old, she ran away from home because her parents would not allow her to go to school. According to her family, she was arrested last year in the Kurdish city of Kermanshah. She was then transferred to the detention center of the Intelligence Ministry.

Revolution court in Kermanshah conducted a brief trial, without due diligence and proper legal representation, lasting only a few minutes. Based on her membership of a Kurdistan political party, she was accused of Fighting God and was given the death penalty. She is currently ill, due to prison conditions and torture. She did not have any lawyer to defend her. Court told her: “You are a God's enemy and you have to be hanged very soon” Her death sentence was confirmed by the Iranian Supreme Court in November 2009.

On June 28, 2010, her family stated that in her last phone call, "which was a month ago, Zeynab has mentioned that she is held in Evin Prison.” Since that time, her family or her lawyers have not been able to receive any further information: the authorities respond that her file has been "lost". In an interview in ''International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran'' published on July 1, 2010, Iranian lawyer Khalil Bahramian talks about him being refused to visit Ms Jalalian in prison.

References

External links

Save Zeinab Jalalian! at United for Iran

facebook group: Save Zeinab Jalalian (زینب جلالیان) from Execution

Category:Living people Category:Iranian Kurdish people Category:Iranian prisoners sentenced to death Category:Iranian torture victims Category:Prisoners sentenced to death by Iran Category:Iranian activists Category:Kurdish activists

ar:زينب جلاليان

Coordinates	51°12′″N58°34′″N
Name	Yingluck Shinawatraยิ่งลักษณ์ ชินวัตร
Honorific-suffix	BM BCh MP
Office	28th Prime Minister of Thailand
Monarch	Bhumibol Adulyadej
Term start	5 August 2011
Predecessor	Abhisit Vejjajiva
Office2	Member of the Thai House of Representatives
Constituency2	Party List (#1)
Term start2	3 July 2011
Birth date	June 21, 1967
Birth place	San Kamphaeng, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Party	Pheu Thai Party
Spouse	Anusorn Amornchat
Children	Supasek
Relations	Thaksin Shinawatra (brother)Somchai Wongsawat(brother-in-law)
Alma mater	Chiang Mai UniversityKentucky State University
Profession	Businessperson
Religion	Theravada Buddhism }}

Yingluck Shinawatra (, , ; born 21 June 1967), or nickname Pu (; ; ''"crab"''), is a Thai businesswoman and politician, member of the Pheu Thai Party, and the 28th Prime Minister of Thailand following the 2011 general election. Yingluck is Thailand's first female Prime Minister.

Born in Chiang Mai province, Yingluck Shinawatra earned bachelor's degree from Chiang Mai University and master's degree from Kentucky State University, both in public administration. She became an executive in the businesses founded by her elder brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, and later became the president of property developer SC Asset and managing director of Advanced Info Service. Meanwhile, her brother Thaksin became Prime Minister, was overthrown in a military coup, and went into self-imposed exile after a tribunal convicted him of abuse of power.

In May 2011, the Pheu Thai Party, which maintained close ties to Thaksin, nominated Yingluck as their candidate for Prime Minister in the 2011 general election. Preliminary election result indicated that Pheu Thai won a landslide victory 265 out of 500-seat House of Representatives of Thailand, making it only the second time in Thai political history that a single party won a parliamentary majority.

Early life and business career

Yingluck's great-grandfather, Seng Saekhu, was a overseas Chinese from Guangdong who arrived in Siam in the 1860s and settled in Chiang Mai in 1908. His eldest son, Chiang Saekhu, was born in Chanthaburi province in 1890 and married a Thai woman, called Saeng Somna. Chiang's eldest son, Sak, adopted the Thai surname Shinawatra ("routinely appropriate action") in 1938. The Khu/Shinawatra later founded Shinawatra Silks and then moved into finance, construction and real estate development. Yingluck's father, Lert, was born at Chiang Mai in 1919 and married Yindi Ramingwong (a daughter of Princess Jantip Na Chiang Mai). In 1968, Lert Shinawatra entered politics and became an MP for Chiang Mai and deputy leader of the now-defunct Liberal party. Lert quit politics in 1976 and opened a coffee shop, grew oranges and flowers in Chiang Mai's San Kamphaeng district, and opened two movie theatres, a gas station, and a car and motorcycle dealership.

Yingluck Shinawatra is the youngest of nine children of Lert and Yindee. Yingluck grew up in Chiang Mai and attended Regina Coeli College, a girls school, at the lower secondary level and then Yupparaj College, a co-ed school, at the upper secondary level. She graduated with a BA degree from the Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration, Chiang Mai University in 1988 and earned a MPA degree (specialization in Management Information Systems) from Kentucky State University in 1991.

Yingluck started her career as a sales and marketing intern at Shinawatra Directories Co., Ltd., a telephone directory business founded by AT&T International. She later became the director of procurement and the director of operations. In 1994, she became the general manager of Rainbow Media, a subsidiary of International Broadcasting Corporation (which later became TrueVisions). She left as Deputy CEO of IBC in 2002, and became the CEO of Advanced Info Service (AIS), Thailand's largest mobile phone operator. After the sale of Shin Corporation (the parent company of AIS) to Temasek Holdings, Yingluck resigned from AIS, but remained Managing Director of SC Asset Co Ltd, the Shinawatra family property development company. She was investigated by Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission regarding possible insider trading after she sold shares of her AIS stock for a profit prior to the sale of the Shin Corporation to Temasek Holdings. No charges were filed. Yingluck Shinawatra is also a committee member and secretary of the Thaicom Foundation.

She has one son, Supasek, with her common-law husband, Anusorn Amornchat. Anusorn was an executive of the Charoen Pokphand Group and managing director of M Link Asia Corporation PCL. Her sister, Yaowapa Wongsawat, is the wife of former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat.

Political career

Establishment of the Pheu Thai Party

After the governing People's Power party was dissolved and its executive board was banned from political activity by the Constitutional Court on 2 December 2008, former People's Power Party MPs formed the Pheu Thai Party. Yingluck was asked to become the leader of the party but she declined, stating that she did not want to be Prime Minister and wanted to focus on business. Yongyuth Wichaidit became the leader of the party.

US diplomatic cables leaked in 2011 revealed that during a 9 September 2009 meeting, former Deputy Prime Minister and "close Thaksin ally" Sompong Amornvivat told Ambassador to Thailand Eric John that he did not envision a big role for Yingluck in the Pheu Thai Party, and that "Thaksin himself was not eager to raise her profile within the party, and was more focused on finding ways to keep his own hand active in politics." However, in a subsequent cable dated 25 November 2009, the Ambassador noted that in a meeting with Yingluck, she spoke with confidence about the "operations, strategy and goals" of the Pheu Thai party and seemed "far more poised" than in previous meetings. The cable cited Yingluck saying that, "Someone could easily emerge relatively late in the game to take the reins of the party and serve as the next Prime Minister."

Pheu Thai Party Leadership

Yongyuth had stated his intention of resigning as party leader in late 2010. Speculation about a snap election in early 2011 heightened internal debate with regards to the party leadership. The front runners were Yingluck and Mingkwan Sangsuwan, who had led the opposition in an unsuccessful motion of no confidence against the Democrat Party-led coalition government. As late as 28 January 2011, Yingluck continued to rule out the party leadership, repeating that she wanted to focus on business. However, she was endorsed by veteran politician Chalerm Ubumrung.

On 16 May 2011, the Pheu Thai party voted to name Yingluck as the party's top candidate under the party-list system (and presumably be the party's nominee for Prime Minister) for parliamentary election scheduled for 3 July. However, she was not made party leader and she did not join the executive board of the party. The ultimate decision was made by Thaksin. "Some said she is my nominee. That's not true. But it can be said that Yingluck is my clone... Another important thing is that Ms Yingluck is my sister and she can make decisions for me. She can say 'yes' or 'no' on my behalf," Thaksin noted in an interview.

2011 Election and Rise to Premiership

Election campaign

Yingluck's main campaign theme was reconciliation following the extended political crisis from 2008 to 2010, culminating in the military crackdown on protesters which left nearly a hundred protesters dead and thousands injured. She promised to empower the Independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Thailand (ITRC), the panel that the Democrat Party-led government had set up to investigate the killings. The ITRC had complained that its work was hampered by the military and the government.

Yingluck also proposed a general amnesty for all major politically-motivated incidents that had taken place since the 2006 coup, which could include the coup itself, court rulings banning Thai Rak Thai and People's Power Party leaders from seeking office, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) seizures of Government House and Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi Airports, the military crackdowns of 2009 and 2010, and the conviction of Thaksin Shinawatra for abuse of power. The proposal was fiercely attacked by the government, who claimed that it would specifically give amnesty to Thaksin, and also result in the return to him of the 46 billion baht of his wealth that that the government had seized as a penalty. However, Yingluck denied that the return of seized assets was a priority for the Pheu Thai party, and repeated that she had no intention of giving amnesty to any one person. Abhisit claimed outright that Yingluck was lying and that amnesty to Thaksin actually was the Pheu Thai party's policy. The government blamed Pheu Thai for the bloodshed during the military crackdown.

Yingluck described a 2020 vision for the elimination of poverty. She promised to reduce the corporate income tax from 30% to 23% and then 20% by 2013 and to raise the minimum wage to 300 baht per day and the minimum wage for university graduates to 15,000 baht per month. Her agricultural policies included improving operating cashflow to farmers and providing loans of up to 70% of expected income, based on a guaranteed rice price of 15,000 baht per ton. She also planned to provide free public Wi-Fi and a tablet PC to every schoolchild (a Thai Rak Thai Party plan to provide one laptop per child was cancelled after the 2006 military coup).

The Democrat Party derided her chances in the election. "The novelty will wear off," claimed a Party executive. When Democrat Party Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij was asked about his thoughts on her, his only reply was, "She’s quite good-looking." However, nearly all pre-election polls predicted a large victory for Pheu Thai.

Election results and the establishment of the government

Exit polls indicated a landslide victory, with Pheu Thai projected to win as many as 310 seats in the 500-seat parliament. The official result was 265 seats for Pheu Thai, with a 65.99% turnout rate (nearly 31 million voters). There were 3 million invalid ballots; the large number was cited as the cause for the difference between the exit poll results and the official count. It was only the 2nd time in Thai history where a single party won more than half of the seats in parliament; the first time was in 2005 with Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party.

United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon welcomed the outcome of the elections and called for all parties to "respect the will of the Thai people as expressed through the democratic process." Aung San Su Kyi congratulated Yingluck, praised the election as “free and fair,” and expected “the ties between Myanmar and Thailand to get better.”

Yingluck quickly formed a coalition with the Chartthaipattana (19 seats), Chart Pattana Puea Pandin (7 seats), and Phalang Chon (7 seats), and Mahachon (1 seat), and New Democracy (1 seat) parties, giving her a total of 300 seats. Outgoing Defense Minister General Prawit Wongsuwon said that he accepted the election results, and after having talked with military leaders, would not to intervene. Army Commander Prayuth Chan-ocha, normally a vocal critic of Pheu Thai, refused to give any interviews.

In her first post-election Facebook post, she said that her top priorities were peoples' livelihoods and national reconciliation. She promised truth, justice, and rule of law for all, and asked people to work together to achieve her 2020 vision.

Prime Minister

Following the general election, the first separate session of the House of Representatives was held in the morning of 5 August to select a new Prime Minister. 296 of the 500 members of parliament voted to approve the premiership of Yingluck Shinawatra, three disapproved, and 197 abstained. Four Democrat lawmakers were absent. Somsak Kiatsuranon, President of the National Assembly, advised and consented King Bhumibol Adulyadej to appoint Yingluck Prime Minister on 8 August. The Proclamation on her appointment has taken retroactive effect from 5 August.

Yingluck has set up her Council of Ministers on 9 August. She and her Ministers were sworn in on 10 August. They must then complete addressing their administrative policy to the National Assembly. According to the Constitution, the address must be made within fifteen days from the effective date of the Proclamation on Yingluck's appointment.

Criticisms

Funding support to the Red Shirts

Ms. Shinawatra’s bank account was among 86 bank accounts that the government accused of being used to fund the Red Shirt protesters during their demonstrations in 2010. However, the government did not pursue any legal case against her. The Department for Special Investigation found that from 28 April 2009 to May 2010, 150 million baht was deposited into her account while 166 million baht was withdrawn. On 28 April 2010 alone, 144 million baht was withdrawn.

Alleged perjury

Ms. Shinawatra received 0.68% of Shin Corp shares out of the 46.87% that Thaksin and his then wife held in 1999. The military junta-appointed Assets Examination Committee claimed that Yingluck made up false transactions and that “there were no real payments for each Ample Rich Co.,Ltd shares sold” and “the transactions were made at a cost basis of par value in order to avoid income taxes, and all the dividends paid out by Shin to those people were transferred to [her sister-in-law] Potjaman's bank accounts”. However, the AEC did not pursue a case against her. Yingluck claimed that “her family has been a victim of political persecution”.

Following her endorsement as the first female leader of the country, Ms Yingluck faced several challenges ranging from her limited experience in politics, public perception of her as merely a puppet of her brother Thaksin, the lawsuit over her alleged perjury stemming from the Shin Corp share case, to how she will implement expensive projects advertised during the campaign given a stronger-than-ever opposition side in Parliament.

Royal decorations

Yingluck has received the following royal decorations in the Honours System of Thailand:

See also

Pheu Thai Party

References

External links

Yingluck Shinawatra on Facebook

Yingluck Shinawatra on Twitter

Pheu Thai Party website

Profile: Yingluck Shinawatra on ''BBC News''

Profile: Yingluck Shinawatra on ''CBC News''

Category:1967 births Category:Chiang Mai University alumni Category:Current national leaders Category:Female heads of government Category:Kentucky State University alumni Category:Living people Category:People from Chiang Mai Province Category:Pheu Thai Party politicians Category:Prime Ministers of Thailand Category:Shinawatra family Category:Thai businesspeople Category:Thai Hakka people Category:Thai politicians of Chinese descent Category:Thai women in politics Category:Members of the Order of the White Elephant

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Coordinates	51°12′″N58°34′″N
Name	Neda Agha-Soltan
Birth date	January 23, 1983
Birth place	Tehran, Iran
Death date	June 20, 2009 (aged 26)
Death place	West of Kargar Avenue (proposed by some to be renamed Neda Street) at the intersection between Khosravi and Salehi StreetsTehran, Iran
Death cause	Firearm, according to the Iranian pro-Government media: Arash Hejazi or his friend; According to her family, eyewitness Hejazi: a person wearing the clothing of Basij.
Resting place	Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery, southern Tehran
Resting place coordinates
Residence	Meshkini Street, Tehranpars neighborhood, Tehran
Nationality	Iranian
Known for	Death during the 2009 Iranian election protests
Alma mater	Islamic Azad University (graduate, philosophy and religion)
Employer	Family's travel agency
Relations	Parents, one brother, one sister
Party	Known as generally apolitical
Footnotes	}}

Footage of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan ( - ''Nedā Āġā Soltān''; January 23, 1983 – June 20, 2009) drew international attention after she was killed during the 2009 Iranian election protests. Her death was captured on video by bystanders and broadcast over the Internet and the video became a rallying point for the opposition. It was described as "probably the most widely witnessed death in human history".

''Nedā'' (ندا) is a word used in Classic Persian and modern Persian to mean “voice”, calling (sometimes understood as a “divine message”, but this is not the etymological sense of ''ندا''), and she has been referred to as the "voice of Iran". Her death became iconic in the struggle of Iranian protesters against the disputed election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Biography

Agha-Soltan was the middle child of a middle class family of three children, whose family resided in a fourth floor flat on Meshkini Street in the Tehranpars district of Tehran. Her father is a civil servant and her mother is a homemaker. She graduated from Islamic Azad University, where she had studied Islamic theology as well as secular philosophies. She was divorced, and according to her mother, had difficulty finding work because of how employers perceived her.

Agha-Soltan was an aspiring, underground Persian popular singer and musician, who was studying her craft through private voice and music lessons. She had studied the violin and had an as-yet-undelivered piano on order at the time of her death. She worked for her family's travel agency Agha-Soltan enjoyed travelling, having saved up money to go on package tours with her friends to Dubai, Thailand and Turkey. She had studied Turkish, hoping it would aid her as a guide for Iranians on foreign tours in Turkey. It was in Turkey, two months prior to her death, that she met her fiancé, 37-year-old Caspian Makan, who worked as a photojournalist in Tehran.

Those who knew her maintain that Agha-Soltan had not previously been very political – she had not supported any particular candidate in the 2009 Iran elections – but that anger over the election results prompted her to join the protest. Her voice and music teacher, Hamid Panahi, who was accompanying Agha-Soltan during the protest and can be seen on the video trying to comfort the dying woman, told the media: "She couldn't stand the injustice of it." Panahi went on to state: "All she wanted was the proper vote of the people to be counted. She wanted to show with her presence that, 'I'm here, I also voted, and my vote wasn't counted', although her family has stated that she attempted to vote and didn't because no representatives of any other parties than the incumbent were present, "It was a very peaceful act of protest, without any violence."

Her name is often miscited as "Neda Soltani". Neda Soltani is a different woman, whose Facebook profile photo was mistakenly published in many articles about the incident. She tried in vain to remove her photo from the internet. Finally, Neda Soltani had to flee from Iran and was granted asylum in Germany in 2010.

Circumstances of death

On June 20, 2009, at around 6:30 p.m., Neda Agha-Soltan was sitting in her Peugeot 206 in traffic on Kargar Avenue in the city of Tehran. She was accompanied by her music teacher and close friend, Hamid Panahi, and two others, who remain unidentified. The four were on their way to participate in the protests against the outcome of the 2009 Iranian presidential election. The car's air conditioner was not working well, so she stopped her car some distance from the main protests and got out on foot to escape the heat. She was standing and observing the sporadic protests in the area when she was shot in the chest.

As captured on amateur video, she collapsed to the ground and was tended to by a doctor, her music teacher, and others from the crowd. Someone in the crowd around her shouted, "She has been shot! Someone, come and take her!" The videos were accompanied by a message from a doctor, later identified as Dr. Arash Hejazi, who said he had been present during the incident (but has since fled Iran out of fear of government reprisals):

"At 19:05 June 20th Place: Kargar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father [sic, later identified as her music teacher] watching the protests was shot by a Basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight at her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than two minutes. The protests were going on about one kilometre away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gas used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me."

Her last words were, "I'm burning, I'm burning!", according to Panahi. She died en route to Tehran's Shariati hospital. However, the civilian physician that tended to Neda in the video has stated that Neda died on the scene.

Hejazi, standing one metre away from her when she was shot, tried to stanch her wound with his hands. Hejazi said nearby members of the crowd pulled a man from his motorcycle while shouting: "We got him, we got him," disarmed him, obtained his identity card and identified him as a member of the Basij militia (government paramilitary). The militiaman was shouting, "I didn't want to kill her." The protesters let him go, but they kept the alleged killer's identity card and took many photographs of him. A recent documentary on the shooting contained a previously unseen clip of demonstrators capturing the militiaman seconds after the shooting.

Videos

The videos spread across the internet virally, quickly gaining the attention of international media and viewers. Discussions about the incident on Twitter, using a hashtag of #neda, became one of the "'trending topics'" by the end of the day on June 20, 2009. The incident was not originally reported by the state-controlled Iranian media, but was instead first reported on by international media. The video has been shown on CNN and other news networks.

There are three videos depicting her death. One shows her collapsing to the ground, apparently still conscious. The second shows her only after she appears to lose consciousness and begins to bleed heavily. The third video shows her just as she begins to bleed profusely.

In the first video, the cameraman approaches a group of people huddled together in front of a parked car at the side of the street. As he moves closer, she can be seen collapsing to the pavement with a large bloodstain at her feet. Two men, Hamid Panahi and Arash Hejazi, are seen trying to revive her. The elderly Panahi was initially assumed to be her father, but later confirmed to be her music teacher. As seconds pass, her eyes roll to one side and she appears to lose consciousness. Blood begins to pour from her nose and mouth, and screams are heard.

In the second video, the cameraman approaches her and the two men; the camera passes over them and centers on her face; her stare is blank and she is bleeding profusely from her nose and mouth. Loud screaming can be heard.

The man next to her can apparently be heard speaking in the first video, saying her name:

"Neda, don't be afraid. Neda, don't be afraid. [obscured by others yelling] Neda, stay with me. Neda stay with me!"

The videos were awarded the George Polk Award for Videography for 2009.

Alleged killer

The man accused of killing Neda Soltan has been identified as Abbas Kargar Javid, a pro-government militiaman, after photographs of the Basiji’s ID cards appeared on the internet, according to The Times.

Aftermath

After being pronounced dead at Shariati hospital, Agha-Soltan was buried at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran; she was denied a proper funeral by government authorities. The authorities had allegedly set aside empty graves for those killed during the protests. Her family agreed to the removal of her organs for transplanting to medical patients. The Iranian government has issued a ban on collective prayers in mosques for Agha-Soltan in the aftermath of the incident. Soona Samsami, the executive director of the Women's Freedom Forum, who has been relaying information about the protests inside Iran to the international media, told the foreign press that Agha-Soltan's immediate family were threatened by authorities if they permitted a gathering to mourn her. Samsami stated, "They were threatened that if people wanted to gather there the family would be charged and punished."

Caspian Makan (Agha-Soltan's fiancé) told BBC: “Neda had said that even if she lost her life and got a bullet in her heart, she would carry on”.

''Time'' and other news sources have speculated that due to the widespread attention given to Agha-Soltan's story by social media networks and mainstream news organizations, she is already being hailed as a martyr. There is also speculation that the Shi'ite cycle of mourning on the third (June 23), seventh (June 27), and 40th (July 30) day after a person's death may give the protests sustained momentum, in similar fashion to the Iranian Revolution, where each commemoration of a demonstrator's death sparked renewed protests, resulting in more deaths, feeding a cycle that eventually resulted in the overthrowing of Iran's monarchy.

On June 22, Iranian presidential candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who are contesting the validity of the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called upon Iranian citizens to commemorate Agha-Soltan. Karroubi announced his appeal on Facebook, asking demonstrators to gather in the center of the Iranian capital at 4:00 pm local time. The chief of the Tehran Police announced that his department had no involvement in the fatal incident. Later that day, riot police armed with live ammunition and tear gas dispersed a crowd of between 200 and 1,000 protesters who had gathered in Tehran's Haft-e Tir Square. The protests followed online calls for tribute to Agha-Soltan and others killed during the demonstrations. Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, a senior Iranian cleric and vocal critic of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called for three days of public mourning for the death of Neda.

Caspian Makan, following Neda's death, was tortured and escaped to Canada. He recently visited Israel as a guest of Israel's Channel 2. "I have come here out of the brotherhood of nations," he told Channel 2.

Funeral

About 70 mourners gathered outside Niloufar mosque in Abbas Abad, where the Agha-Soltan family attended services. A leaflet posted on the mosque's door read, "There is no commemoration here for Neda Agha Soltan." Many in the crowd wore black. Some recited poems. After about ten minutes, 20 Basij paramilitary arrived on motorcycles and dispersed the attendees.

On June 24, ''The Guardian'' reported the results of interviews of neighbours who said Agha-Soltan's family had been forced to vacate their apartment some days after her death. Reuters reported that supporters of presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi stated they would release thousands of balloons on Friday, June 26, 2009 with the message "Neda you will always remain in our hearts" imprinted on them.

On June 23, it was reported that, to prevent Agha-Soltan's family's home from becoming a place of pilgrimage, government authorities told the family to remove the black mourning banners from outside the home.

On Friday, July 31, 2009, 40th day anniversary of the killings of such youth as Neda Agha Soltan, Sohrab Aarabi and Ashkan Sohrabi was held in Tehran where thousands of Iranians mourned for the loss of the victims. Reports also came of gatherings in the thousands in cities of Rasht, Shiraz and Mashad.

Desecration of her grave

On November 16, 2009, supporters of the Iranian regime desecrated her grave and removed her gravestone. Later, on December 31, 2009, supporters of the Iranian Government defaced the portrait on her grave by shooting at it multiple times.

Iranian government reactions

The university branch of female members of Basij held a gathering in Tehran in front of the British embassy, demanding that Arash Hejazi be returned to Iran (as witness or suspect). As they are assumed to be close to the government, it means the government condemns the crime and is pursuing it (their way). According to an Iranian official, announcing her as a martyr is possible. Iran's ambassador to Mexico, Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri, suggested in an interview on June 25, 2009 that the CIA could have been involved in Agha-Soltan's death. Ambassador Ghadiri questioned how the shooting was video taped so effectively, asserting that the incident occurred away from other demonstrations. He also stated that using a woman would be more effective in accomplishing the goals the CIA is purported to desire. Ambassador Ghadiri said "the bullet that was found in her head was not a bullet that you could find in Iran" (he thought she was shot in head). The account of Doctor Hejazi was that Agha-Soltan was shot in the chest from the front, as there was no exit wound, and the video evidence showing a wound to the chest. Hejazi is the man seen in the video placing his hands on Agha-Soltan's chest to staunch her bleeding (as described above under section Circumstances of death).

During his Friday sermon on June 26, the Supreme Leader's appointed speaker Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said "evidence shows that [protesters] have done it themselves and have raised propaganda against the system." Eye witnesses at the scene of the shooting said Agha-Soltan was shot by a member of the pro-government Basij militia.

Iran's police chief, brigadier general Ahmadi-Moghaddam told the press on June 30, 2009 that the Iranian police and Ministry of Intelligence filed an arrest warrant for Interpol to arrest Dr. Arash Hejazi, an eyewitness of Neda's death, for poisoning the international atmosphere against the Iranian government and telling misinformation about Neda's death by giving his account of the incident to foreign news media.

Ezzatollah Zarghami, the head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, told the press on July 4, 2009 that the videos of Neda's death were all made by BBC and CNN.

In November 2009, Iran's embassy in London sent a letter of protest to The Queen's College, Oxford about the college establishing the Neda Agha-Soltan Graduate Scholarship in Philosophy.

In December 2009, Iranian state television aired a report about Agha-Soltan's death, portraying it as a western plot. The program argued that Agha-Soltan simulated her death with accomplices, and that she was killed afterwards, having no knowledge of her partners' intentions. and this can be seen here.

Claims of forced confessions

According to The Times, quoted from Mr. Makan and Ms. Agha Soltan's parents, officials tried to get them to confess that it was opposition protestors that had killed Neda, and not government militiamen. They were given incentives such as declaring Neda to be a martyr and giving the family a pension if they complied. Mr. Makan and Neda's family refused the offer.

Mr. Panahi was later forced by the government to change his story. The new version of events were retold by Panahi on state television.

Response to the Iranian government

In December 2009, her family accused the security forces of killing her. This was the strongest statement the family of Neda Agha-Soltan made since her death. This accusation followed the spread of an Iranian government-proposed theory blaming a ''"conspiracy of western governments"'' for the killing. ''"I openly declare that no one, apart from the government, killed Neda. Her killer can only be from the government,"'' her father told the BBC's Persian service by telephone from Iran.

See also

Neda Agha-Soltan Graduate Scholarship, established at The Queen's College, Oxford

Sohrab Aarabi

Taraneh Mousavi

Death of Khaled Mohamed Saeed

Death of Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb

References

External links

Video of her death wins prestigious 2009 George Polk Award for Videography

Caspian Makan: 'I cannot believe it yet. I still think I will see Neda again'; The Guardian, 15 November 2009

Photos: Who Was Neda Agha-Soltan? – a photo essay by ''TIME''

Iran Bans Prayers for 'Angel of Freedom' Neda Agha Soltan; Damien McElroy, The Telegraph, 22 June 2009

Family, Friends Mourn 'Neda'; Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, 23 June 2009

''For Neda'': A 67min documentary film by the British film-maker Antony Thomas - public release on 14 June 2010. Film available in youtube in English, Persian and Arabic language.

Neda, an Opera by Nader Mashayekhi: Pathos without Kitsch

Agha-Soltan, Neda Agha-Soltan, Neda Agha-Soltan, Neda Agha-Soltan, Neda Category:Iranian presidential election, 2009 Agha-Soltan, Neda Agha-Soltan, Neda Category:Protests in Iran Category:1983 births

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