Dimensions: 20x28cm
Painted: 2009
Materials: Acrylic on MDF board
Private collection
The story behind Neda Soltan
On the 20th of June 2009, a young woman named Neda Soltan was shot dead in the streets of Tehran. She was not there to protest. She was a bystander, caught in the chaos of the mass demonstrations that erupted after the widely disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Her killer was Abbas Kargar Javid, a pro-government militiaman. Within hours, video of her death had spread across the world. Millions saw it. It was the kind of image that does not leave you.
The response was to paint her. The source is the only known photograph of Neda Soltan. It seemed the least that could be done — to make something permanent from an image that had briefly made the world stop and pay attention, before the news cycle moved on.
The Iranian government’s response to her death was to lie about it, blame the CIA, and desecrate her grave. That she did not receive the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize — awarded instead to Barack Obama, who acknowledged in his acceptance speech that he had not earned it — remains one of the more dispiriting footnotes to her story.
This painting is a small act of witness.
Source image of realism painting Neda Soltan
