Neda Agha-Soltan Graduate Scholarship the country the status of "international basket case". While the problems of Iran were no longer front-page news, it said, they still existed. In the circumstances, the editorial concluded, "A scholarship at The Queen’s College in memory of Neda Soltan is, indeed, politically motivated, and admirably so". UK diplomatic sources, speaking anonymously to "The Times", said that if the government had been asked, it would have advised against the creation of the scholarship, because Iran would see it as an act of provocation, and because it would interfere with efforts to free Iranians working for the British Embassy in Tehran
Death of Neda Agha-Soltan protests inside Iran to international media outlets, told the foreign press that Agha-Soltan's immediate family were threatened by authorities if they permitted a gathering to mourn her. Samsami stated, "They were threatened that if people wanted to gather there the family would be charged and punished." Caspian Makan (Agha-Soltan's fiancé) told the BBC: "Neda had said that even if she lost her life and got a bullet in her heart, she would carry on." Pro-government activists have cited this as contradictory to the claim of not being involved in the protests and simply being in the area due to the