Word: agha
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...since the disputed June 12 presidential election, its most recent plot of graves, No. 257, has become a magnet for the opposition. On July 30, thousands of people traveled here for an abortive memorial turned protest for 26-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan, whose death was captured on video and seen by millions around the world. Security forces ordered opposition leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi to turn back and then started beating the mourners. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of opposition supporters still secretly visit Agha-Soltan's grave, despite the threat of harassment or arrest by the Basij paramilitary...
...graves, and being an hour's drive from central Tehran, the authorities may have thought this piece of desert would be the perfect place for opposition martyrs to lie in obscurity. But on an afternoon in late August, several mourners milling about Plot 257 were able to point to Agha-Soltan's grave (Row 41, No. 32), where there is recently turned earth, a puddle at one side and strewn plastic water bottles at the perimeter. First-time visitors can get word-of-mouth directions from opposition sympathizers who have taken the trip out here...
...black metal sign serves as a makeshift tombstone, sticking out of the orange soil. But unlike many nearby graves, there are scattered rose petals over Agha-Soltan's site. As a visitor took out a camera, a man - perhaps an undercover security agent or merely an overzealous citizen - emerged and angrily shouted, "No pictures...
...Agha-Soltan's name is on the tombstone, but not her date of death: June 20, or Bloody Saturday, a day after the Supreme Leader's Friday prayer sermon spoke of a crushing response to any further street demonstrations. Two young women, wearing nail polish and jeans under their mandatory manteaus, knelt beside the grave and openly cried, in defiance of an unspoken law not to congregate here...
...those RPGs hit our campaign headquarters, imagine how many casualties we would have," says Fariba Ahmadi Kakar, a member of parliament who supports Karzai. She says she's not satisfied with the extra security measures in place and wants the vote to be postponed. On the other hand, Agha Wali, 32, says he's sure polling stations will be safe and that he plans to vote for Ashraf Ghani, the policy-oriented former Finance Minister. Shafiqa, 21, insists through the cloak of her burqa that she will cast a vote to re-elect Karzai "no matter how bad" the situation...