The Times reports that supporters of the Iranian Government have for a second time desecrated the grave of Neda Soltan, the student whose shooting during a street demonstration last June made her a worldwide symbol of the opposition.The black marble grave stone on which her face is engraved has been pockmarked by bullets. This is despite the constant presence of security forces who are there to prevent the grave from becoming a shrine.The current tombstone was put in place on December 14 after the previous one was smashed in mid-November. The damage was discovered on December 31.Not only wishing to destroy her last resting place the regime has increased its efforts to smear her name. A recent documentary (excerpts were aired by Press TV, the English language propaganda station which...

The Times has chosen a martyr of the Iranian protests as its person of the year. Six months ago Neda Soltan’s death flashed across the world and a tragic icon was born. This is an edited version of the Times article:Neda was not political. She did not vote in the Iranian presidential election on June 12. The young student was appalled, however, by the way that the regime shamelessly rigged the result and reinstalled Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ignoring the pleas of her family, she went with her music teacher eight days later to join a huge opposition demonstration in Tehran. Hours after leaving home, she was shot, by a government militiaman, as she and other demonstrators chanted: “Death to the dictator.”Arash Hejazi, a doctor standing near by, remembers her looking down in surprise as...

According to the Times, Queens College Oxford has received thousands of pounds in unsolicited public donations in support of a scholarship honouring an Iranian student murdered during a street protest in Tehran.For those who do not already know Neda was shot dead on June 20 during a street protest against Iran’s rigged presidential election. She has become a worldwide icon of the protests.But the public support for commemorating Neda Soltan contrasts sharply with the attitude of the British Government. The Times learnt that it would have advised Queen’s College against establishing the scholarship, saying that Iran would regard it as a provocative move.Diplomatic sources apparently stated that the scholarship has driven “another nail into the coffin” of an already strained...

That epitome of undergraduate ineptitude, even by the incompetent standards of New Labour, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband (pictured above, yesterday condemned the arrest of 9 employees of the British embassy in Tehran and demanded their immediate release. An Iranian news agency reported that the Iranian workers had been detained for “involvement in the post-election unrest in the Islamic Republic.” The arrests followed a week of escalating rhetoric against Britain, which was accused by the Iranian foreign minister of flying in jet-loads of spies to disrupt Iran’s presidential election. Miliband denied that the mission had been involved in any post-election unrest and called for the release of the embassy staff. ”This is harassment and intimidation of a...

Yesterday’s Guardian reported that the Iranian authorities had ordered the family of Neda Agha Soltan out of their Tehran home. Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The authorities have apparently treated the family with utter contempt: They did not let the family have her body back, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques, the neighbours said.In accordance with tradition, the family had put up a mourning announcement and attached a black banner to the building. But the police took them down, refusing to allow the family to show any signs of mourning. The next day they were ordered to move...

Neda Agha Soltani. Murdered by the Iranian regime 20 June 2009. This week's entry for the Tuesday and Wednesday editions of Wordless...