A young woman allegedly shot to death in Iran is becoming a symbol of the protests, after her dying moments were caught on a mobile phone video camera. Wikipedia already has a page for her, identifying her as Neda Salehi Agha Soltan. The gruesome video has been shown repeatedly on CNN, but if you haven’t seen it there are links at the bottom of the Wikipedia page.

TIME Magazine’s Robin Wright has an interesting article on the possible far-reaching consequences of One Woman’s Death.

An Associated Press story quotes an anonymous source who says that the Iranian government barred Neda’s family from holding a public funeral: Amateur video turns woman into icon of Iran unrest.

People posting the video say the woman was shot by a member of the pro-government Basij militia. That information could not be independently verified: Reporters for foreign news organizations have been barred from reporting on the streets of Tehran, and the Iranian government has not released any information about her death.

An acquaintance of her family said Neda worked part-time at a travel agency in Iran and that the government barred the family from holding a public funeral Monday. The acquaintance spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared government reprisal.

UPDATE at 6/22/09 10:46:41 am:

Nico Pitney at HuffPo has a translation of an interview with Neda’s fiance, who’s insistent that Neda was not a supporter of either Mousavi or Ahmadinejad: Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising.

Mr. Makan also commented on fake pictures of videos claiming to be Neda at various sites:“I was looking at some sites including ‘iReport’. There was a picture of a young woman with green signs from previous calm demonstrations and had claimed it was Neda before being shot. These pictures have no relation to the event. It seems that Mr. Mousavi’s supporters are trying to portray Neda as one of his supporters. This is not so. Neda was incredibly close to me and she was never supportive of either two groups. Neda wanted freedom and freedom for all.”