The article in question can be found here, along with the video in question.
Response: I am transfixed in horror watching this woman bleed to death. Her eyes roll back and men clutch her dying body. I almost feel like I am there, crying and screaming along with the others, and one man in particular – older, greyer – appears to be her father, begging her to open her eyes and stay awake. The determination these men possess to keep her alive is evident in their actions, as one man tries to dig the blood out of her mouth.
I am shocked for a variety of reasons. One among them makes me feel very MacBeth: so much blood! There is just so much blood. I am shocked at the amount, I am shocked at how it pours from every orifice, I am shocked that one human can contain so much blood. Watching it pour is watching her life gush away.
I cannot even begin to fathom the pain one must experience while watching their child pass away so gruesomely in front of them, while simultaneously being raised to an almost mythical status in the Western world as the face of the victim in Iranian politics as a result of this election. Jezebel mentions that women were especially implicated in the importance of this election, and are among the most visible protestors. Now one woman has become the face of the victim for Iran, and I cannot help but think how often this happens in society, war, politics, etc.
Why is it always women? Why do I feel like it’s always women who are being made an example of, or a victim of? Why are they more sympathetic than men?
Or am I happier to hear that, as a woman named Parisa says, that women are screaming to be heard, who are “ready to explode?” I think perhaps I am, more so than I am concerned that they are victims, although it doesn’t stop me from wondering why women must always be the victims people see and remember most.
Self-Critique: I find a lot of what I say hypocritical. I complain about making women victims and the sympathetic sex, yet I write a post about exactly why these women are victims and centre my entire journal entry around a dead woman. My concerns are obviously, and primarily, Western. My feminist leanings are evident in that I am both concerned about how women are portrayed in these events, as well as my joy that they want to be heard, figuratively and literally.
My reasons for being so shocked are primarily that I lead an extremely sheltered life. Although I am willing to educate myself on what is occurring in other parts of the world, or even in my own neighbourhood, it does not really hit home until I see a video of what is happening to people who may very well be my age. I have problems reconciling the fact that we are the same age, and that while these events might not be acceptable, they are happening regardless, and someone there believes such excessive violence is an acceptable reaction to riots and protestors. My shock is, certainly naïve, and implies an unworldliness and detachment from world events, but also implies an unawareness of crimes perpetrated within my own country in its past and present.
My first and second paragraphs focus heavily on how things look. This often happens when I am watching as opposed to reading something; I am more focused on people’s looks and reactions as opposed to my own. I tend to focus on the details, like the man who shoves his finger in Neda’s mouth to help her breathe fruitlessly, as opposed to my own reaction to what he is doing, which influences my response. Instead of paying attention to what I am thinking and feeling and simply letting myself think, I must stop and watch again and again and dilute my original response until it lacks that rawness of reaction to such a graphic scene.
Cultural Critique: Western culture predominates my response. The belief that gruesome events only happen elsewhere is evident, as well as the prevalent feminist culture. The belief that woman should be heard is implied. Western society really takes for granted that women will be heard, at least a little bit. Of course, Western society is not without its own prejudices against women, so it is perhaps not quite as enlightened as I believe it to be in my mind.
The focus on appearance is a very Western cultural view as well. I feel very cynical in believing this, but I believe that perhaps her marketability as a victim is based in part upon Neda’s actual colouring, which is quite light, and her Western-style clothing. This makes it easier for the West to see themselves in her position, as well as the ambiguous appearance of the street – it could be any street, any woman, etc. That said, it has been a while since Western society, especially North America, has experienced such a violent riot as the ones in Iran.
I often discuss my lack of awareness, which is an element of self-critique I present often accompanied with shame. Western society is two-faced on this issue; it either shoves news on a 24 hour basis in a relentless attack on television, or it advocates couch potato syndrome, which ensures naivety by pushing Westerners into a comfortable culture of ignorance of what is happening outside their very small bubble. These two extremes are very protective of themselves, and often find each other in a sort of tug of war – there is very little middle ground for people to occupy within overconsumption of knowledge and starvation of knowledge.
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