# Khaled Said will not be Egypt’s # Neda

Khaled Mohamed Said and Neda Agha-Soltan were both murdered by their respective country’s security forces, a few days shy from a year apart. In both cases, their death has become an incomparable motivation, fueling activists to reclaim their civil and political rights from a brutal government, unfazed by what could’ve been a deterrent or a warning to whomever challenges the State. It gave a new breath, carried by thousands of young and old people, many of whom new activists motivated by the intolerable injustice and the realization that idleness is no longer a guarantee of safety. Weeks after, demonstrators have been chanting their names, defiantly carrying their portrait in the face of an oppressive - and impressive - force.

But the latter has become a global icon, a worldwide symbol for pro-justice activists; Neda’s story have helped galvanise a world opinion and gave a face to her cause, a transboundary, transidentity call - that’s what her first name means - against corruption and political oppression.

Activists - the real and the armchair variety - shared her story around the world. Tens of thousands of Tweets about the Iranian elections and demonstrations - mostly unrelated to her death - were double-hashtaged “#Iran #Neda” - implicit shorthand, perhaps, for “we’re doing it for her”.

Khaled Said’s death is probably one of the most defining events in recent Egyptian political activism. For the past three weeks, demonstrations have not quieted in Egypt’s main cities - and show no sign of abatement, with several more planned in the coming days. Repeated clashes with the police, with dozens of demonstrators arrested at every sit-in or demonstration have done nothing to break the spirits.

But there seems to be little to no interest whatsoever from the rest of the world. Despite the strong mobilization in Egypt and the apparent western interest in the democratization of the Middle East, Khaled’s death and the series of ensuing demonstrations have only been side-news on the global media watch.

Khaled Said - or, to use the hashtag used by activists in Egypt, #KhaledSaid, will not be Egypt’s Neda.

This article does not have the pretension of being a full political-media analysis, but focuses on a few particular characteristics that explain why my title is categorically negative.

1. Back story

Neda Agha-Soltan’s death, you may remember, was filmed as she marched in a demonstration, challenging the results of the 2009 president elections in Iran.

The story couldn’t be more straightforward - and really needed no explanation or subtitles.

Conversely, Khaled's story we were later told: he was sitting in an Alexandria Internet café when two police henchmen walking in, started checking people’s IDs, and beat Khaled up when he rejected their disrespectful and harsh manner of addressing people. He was dragged to the street, his head smashed against a staircase railing, then taken by a police car - then brought back to the street, dead, where an ambulance promptly whisked him away. It took several days until the information was widespread enough - and was accompanied by photos.

In both cases, the government attempted to smear the opposition - and the victims themselves. In Iran, the government accused the opposition of staging Neda’s murder to stoke popular anger. In Egypt, the government accused Khaled, posthumously, of dealing drugs - and published an autopsy report (actually, two) claiming that he had died by ‘chocking on wrap of drugs’ he tried to swallow as he saw the policemen approaching.

Both set of claims are infuriatingly bogus, of course, but in the second case the Egyptian state seems to have managed to partially muddle the story in people’s minds.

2. Visuals

We watched Neda’s death live. We quivered as her blood spilled on the asphalt, we shivered as we looked into her wide, surprised eyes which silently screamed for a help that was beyond offer. And we sat, in disbelief, in silent as we realised that ‘this young woman has just been killed’ - a disbelief which transformed into the purest anger against those who dared to kill the young woman, whose name we didn’t know yet.

Khaled Said’s death brought a very different visual shock to the viewers. Several days after the events, post-autopsy photos surfaced featuring a badly beaten, barely-human version of the Khaled. The photo is one so unsettling people look away from - simply wish to forget it.

For the average viewer, a live video simply has far more impact than a gruesome photograph; it also stands the chance of being replayed time and again on television - assuming the entire topic falls within the editorial priorities, and interests of the audience.

3. Editorial priorities and audience predisposition

In an era where news aren’t newsworthy unless they’re repeated enough, and by the right people, the “value” of news is obeys opaque rules and measurements.

This is why, for instance, the resignation of an American commander in Afghanistan - whose name, one can assume, was unknown to most of the planet - takes large precedence over the death of a dozen Afghanis his own soldiers mistakenly killed earlier during the week.

I do not lay all the blame at the feet of editorial decisions -though they do carry a large segment - but also of the audience.

International news coverage of the Iranian demonstrations simply left democracy and human rights activists in less ‘interesting’ countries very jealous. I am not saying it wasn’t undeserved - on the contrary. Every struggle must be thoroughly documented, reported, and supported. Unfortunately, every struggle isn’t.

Post-electoral unrest in 2009’s Iran - and a year prior, in Zimbabwe - were the selective target of the Western media; it is no secret that regimes in both those countries, embodied in the long-deviled leaders Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Robert Mugabe - were extremely unsavoury to many G-20 governments and heavily vilified in their media. The official, media, and eventually popular eagerness to watch them fall was largely responsible for the coverage of the anti-Ahmedinejad/ anti-Mugabe demonstrations on news-setting outlets globally.

Conversely, the corrupt and brutal Egyptian regime remains in the good books of every Western leader - save for a few years during George W. Bush’s administration, whose attempt to impose democracy was so clumsy and heavy-handed it could only backfire into anti-American sentiments. The general human rights situation in Egypt - as opposed to, say, minority rights - also garners overall little interest abroad. The mainstream media, the government, and the people care quite little about the topic, about the people demanding, sometimes at the peril of their lives, their basic rights in Egypt.

News coverage of the Khaled Said case and the silent upsurge will continue to be raw and sporadic. And surely no one abroad will be changing their twitter location to “Alexandria, Egypt” and changing their Facebook profile photo into Khaled’s. There probably won't be a documentary about him either.

But if Khaled won’t be Egypt’s Neda to the rest of the world, but for activists here in Egypt, his death will remain a symbol of what should no longer be allowed to take place in this country.