Death of Neda Agha-Soltan in the Tehranpars district of Tehran. Her father is a civil servant and her mother is a homemaker. She was graduating from Islamic Azad University, where she had studied Islamic theology as well as secular philosophies, but she withdrew after two semesters of study for two reasons, one being a disagreement with her husband Amir and his family, and the other being the atmosphere and the pressure of the authorities towards her appearance and dress in the university. She was divorced, and according to her mother, had difficulty in finding work because of how employers perceived her. Agha-Soltan was an
Neda Agha-Soltan Graduate Scholarship the scholarship was Arianne Shahvisi, a philosophy student of Iranian descent, who described the award as "a great honour". The establishment of the scholarship led to criticism from the Iranian government: the Iranian embassy in London told the college that the university was involved in a "politically motivated campaign ... in sharp contrast with its academic objectives". In response, "The Times" praised the scholarship in an editorial, saying that the establishment of the scholarship was indeed politically motivated, "and admirably so", given the government's reaction to her death and continuing problems in Iran. One British–Iranian student, Leyla Ferani, has said