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
Khalifeh Soltan being descendants of the celebrated Marashi ruler Mir-i Buzurg (r. 1359–1362), they still weren't one of the leading families of Isfahan yet. But they were still affluent and distinguished enough to intermarry with local well-known families. According to the Safavid court historian Iskandar Munshi, "The Khalifeh family had held estates in the Isfahan area for generations." Khalifeh Soltan had a brother named Mirza Qavam al-Din Mohammad, who later, like himself and their father, would occupy high offices. On November 28, 1607, Khalifeh Soltan married shah Abbas I's third daughter, Khan-Agha Begum. After the marriage, Khalifeh Soltan asked for the governorship