Neda Agha-Soltan Graduate Scholarship
Encyclopedia
The Neda Agha-Soltan Graduate Scholarship is a scholarship
for post-graduate philosophy students at The Queen's College, Oxford
, with preference given to students of Iran
ian citizenship or heritage. It was established in 2009 following the death earlier in the year of Neda Agha-Soltan, an Iranian philosophy student, in the street protests
that followed the disputed Iranian presidential election
. The college received offers from two anonymous donors to establish a scholarship, followed by many individual donations from members of the public and former students of Queen's. The college aims to raise £65,000 to establish the scholarship on a permanent basis. The first recipient of the scholarship is Arianne Shahvis, 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 regime: 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 regime's reaction to her death and continuing problems in Iran. One British–Iranian student, Leyla Ferani, has said that the scholarship could be Agha-Soltan's "most important legacy". The college has denied that it took a political decision in establishing the scholarship, stating that it aims to attract and support the best students, and arguing that refusal of the donations would itself have been a political act. Anonymous British diplomatic sources were reported as saying that the creation of the scholarship had put "another nail into the coffin" of relations between Britain and Iran.
in Iran
that followed the 2009 disputed presidential election
. Video footage of her death was seen around the world. In the words of The Times
, she "became an emblem of the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom, and her death a symbol of the regime’s brutality". Another writer has called her a "defining symbol of the protest movement in Iran".
for post-graduate students of philosophy at The Queen's College, Oxford
(one of the constituent colleges
of the University of Oxford
); the college's governing body accepted the offers. One of the initial donors has pledged a further £10,000 over five years. The college has said that the main donor was a British citizen and well known to Queen's. By November 2009, in the region of an additional £15,000 had been donated to the scholarship fund, some from former students of the college and some from members of the public without a connection to Queen's. A fundraising campaign targeting former philosophy students of the college led to further donations, which increased the fund to over £20,000. The college aims to raise £65,000 to establish the scholarship on a permanent basis.
The decision to name the scholarship after Agha-Soltan was that of the donors rather than the college: Paul Madden
, the Provost
of the college, said that "within reason" donors decided the name of a scholarship. The scholarship pays college fees of about £4,000 over a two-year period. It is open to all students at Queen's studying for post-graduate degrees in philosophy, with preference given to Iranian nationals or those with Iranian heritage. The first holder of the scholarship is Arianne Shahvisi, studying philosophy of physics, who is of Iranian descent. She said that it was "a great honour" to be awarded the scholarship, adding that "in succeeding in my studies at Oxford, I can do justice to the name of [the Agha-Soltan family]'s brave and gifted daughter".
There was also a report of a demonstration outside the British Embassy in Tehran against the scholarship. A group of female protesters were said by the Iranian news agency Fars
to have chanted "Death to Britain".
In response, Madden emphasised that the scholarship was to help Iranian students without adequate financial resources of their own to study at Oxford. He said that other universities were winning the competition to attract the best graduate students, adding that donations such as these were "absolutely vital" for the college to be able to "attract and retain the best young minds". A college spokesman said that the scholarship had not been set up as part of a political decision, and if the initial donations had been refused, this would have been interpreted as a political decision too. The university (which did not receive a letter of complaint from the embassy) made it clear that the decision to establish the scholarship was one for Queen's, not for the university, since the colleges are self-governing bodies.
, an Iranian writer who was present at Soltan's death, praised the college for the scholarship. An unnamed Iranian academic said to The Times that the letter from the Iranian embassy showed that the death had damaged the Iranian regime. A British-Iranian student, Leyla Ferani, writing in The Daily Telegraph
, said that the establishment of the scholarship was "more than commendable", and "could prove to be a galvanising tool for the protestors". She said that "Oxford's move is as striking as it is heartening", adding that it "honours the whole student body in Iran which has been repressed and tortured by the Islamic Republic". She commented that "In one of Britain’s top universities, it will foster crucial awareness of the regime’s tyrannical attitude towards education", and said that the scholarship could be Soltan's "most important legacy".
A day after publishing the letter from the Iranian embassy, an editorial
in The Times
praised the college's actions. It described Soltan's death as a "brutal example" of a regime suppressing opposition, and said that the Iranian response to her death was giving 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 who had been detained for participating in the post-election protests. The sources said the scholarship had put "another nail into the coffin" of relations between Britain and Iran.
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
for post-graduate philosophy students at The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its 18th-century architecture...
, with preference given to students of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian citizenship or heritage. It was established in 2009 following the death earlier in the year of Neda Agha-Soltan, an Iranian philosophy student, in the street protests
2009 Iranian election protests
Protests following the 2009 Iranian presidential election against the disputed victory of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and in support of opposition candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi occurred in major cities in Iran and around the world starting June 13, 2009...
that followed the disputed Iranian presidential election
Iranian presidential election, 2009
Iran's tenth presidential election was held on 12 June 2009, with incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad running against three challengers. The next morning the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, announced that with two-thirds of the votes counted, Ahmadinejad had won the election...
. The college received offers from two anonymous donors to establish a scholarship, followed by many individual donations from members of the public and former students of Queen's. The college aims to raise £65,000 to establish the scholarship on a permanent basis. The first recipient of the scholarship is Arianne Shahvis, 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 regime: 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
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
praised the scholarship in an editorial
Editorial
An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...
, saying that the establishment of the scholarship was indeed politically motivated, "and admirably so", given the regime's reaction to her death and continuing problems in Iran. One British–Iranian student, Leyla Ferani, has said that the scholarship could be Agha-Soltan's "most important legacy". The college has denied that it took a political decision in establishing the scholarship, stating that it aims to attract and support the best students, and arguing that refusal of the donations would itself have been a political act. Anonymous British diplomatic sources were reported as saying that the creation of the scholarship had put "another nail into the coffin" of relations between Britain and Iran.
Neda Agha-Soltan
Neda Agha-Soltan, a 26 year old philosophy student, was shot and killed on 20 June 2009 during street protests2009 Iranian election protests
Protests following the 2009 Iranian presidential election against the disputed victory of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and in support of opposition candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi occurred in major cities in Iran and around the world starting June 13, 2009...
in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
that followed the 2009 disputed presidential election
Iranian presidential election, 2009
Iran's tenth presidential election was held on 12 June 2009, with incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad running against three challengers. The next morning the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, announced that with two-thirds of the votes counted, Ahmadinejad had won the election...
. Video footage of her death was seen around the world. In the words of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, she "became an emblem of the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom, and her death a symbol of the regime’s brutality". Another writer has called her a "defining symbol of the protest movement in Iran".
Scholarship
After Agha-Soltan's death, two anonymous British donors offered to donate £4,000 to establish a scholarshipScholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
for post-graduate students of philosophy at The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its 18th-century architecture...
(one of the constituent colleges
Colleges of the University of Oxford
The University of Oxford comprises 38 Colleges and 6 Permanent Private Halls of religious foundation. Colleges and PPHs are autonomous self-governing corporations within the university, and all teaching staff and students studying for a degree of the university must belong to one of the colleges...
of the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
); the college's governing body accepted the offers. One of the initial donors has pledged a further £10,000 over five years. The college has said that the main donor was a British citizen and well known to Queen's. By November 2009, in the region of an additional £15,000 had been donated to the scholarship fund, some from former students of the college and some from members of the public without a connection to Queen's. A fundraising campaign targeting former philosophy students of the college led to further donations, which increased the fund to over £20,000. The college aims to raise £65,000 to establish the scholarship on a permanent basis.
The decision to name the scholarship after Agha-Soltan was that of the donors rather than the college: Paul Madden
Paul Madden
Paul Anthony Madden is a British chemist and Provost of The Queen's College, Oxford.From 1984 until 2005 he was Fellow in Chemistry at The Queen's College, Oxford and also Senior Tutor of the college and Chairman of the University Information Technology Committee...
, the Provost
Provost (education)
A provost is the senior academic administrator at many institutions of higher education in the United States, Canada and Australia, the equivalent of a pro-vice-chancellor at some institutions in the United Kingdom and Ireland....
of the college, said that "within reason" donors decided the name of a scholarship. The scholarship pays college fees of about £4,000 over a two-year period. It is open to all students at Queen's studying for post-graduate degrees in philosophy, with preference given to Iranian nationals or those with Iranian heritage. The first holder of the scholarship is Arianne Shahvisi, studying philosophy of physics, who is of Iranian descent. She said that it was "a great honour" to be awarded the scholarship, adding that "in succeeding in my studies at Oxford, I can do justice to the name of [the Agha-Soltan family]'s brave and gifted daughter".
Iranian government reaction
The establishment of the scholarship drew a letter of protest to the college from the Iranian embassy in London. It was written in November 2009 and signed by the deputy ambassador, Safarali Eslamian. The letter disputed the circumstances of her death, and said that there was "supporting evidence indicating a pre-made scenario". Eslamain wrote, "It seems that the University of Oxford has stepped up involvement in a politically motivated campaign which is not only in sharp contract with its academic objectives, but also is linked with a chain of events in post-Iranian presidential elections blamed for British interference both at home and abroad". The letter also said that the "decision to abuse Neda's case to establish a graduate scholarship will highly politicise your academic institution, undermining your scientific credibility – along with British press which made exceptionally a lot of hue and cry on Neda's death – will make Oxford at odd with the rest of the world's academic institutions". Eslamain asked for the university's governing board to be informed of "the Iranian views", and finished by saying, "Surely, your steps to achieve your attractions through non-politically supported programmes can better heal the wounds of her family and her nation".There was also a report of a demonstration outside the British Embassy in Tehran against the scholarship. A group of female protesters were said by the Iranian news agency Fars
Fars News Agency
Fars News Agency is a news agency in Iran. While it describes itself as "Iran's leading independent news agency", news organizations such as CNN and Reuters describe it as a "semi-official" news agency with ties to the government...
to have chanted "Death to Britain".
In response, Madden emphasised that the scholarship was to help Iranian students without adequate financial resources of their own to study at Oxford. He said that other universities were winning the competition to attract the best graduate students, adding that donations such as these were "absolutely vital" for the college to be able to "attract and retain the best young minds". A college spokesman said that the scholarship had not been set up as part of a political decision, and if the initial donations had been refused, this would have been interpreted as a political decision too. The university (which did not receive a letter of complaint from the embassy) made it clear that the decision to establish the scholarship was one for Queen's, not for the university, since the colleges are self-governing bodies.
Other reaction
Arash HejaziArash Hejazi
Arash Hejazi , born 1971 in Tehran, Iran, is an Iranian novelist, fiction writer and translator of literary works from English and Portuguese into Persian. He is also an editor in Caravan Books Publishing House , and Book Fiesta Literary Magazine...
, an Iranian writer who was present at Soltan's death, praised the college for the scholarship. An unnamed Iranian academic said to The Times that the letter from the Iranian embassy showed that the death had damaged the Iranian regime. A British-Iranian student, Leyla Ferani, writing in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, said that the establishment of the scholarship was "more than commendable", and "could prove to be a galvanising tool for the protestors". She said that "Oxford's move is as striking as it is heartening", adding that it "honours the whole student body in Iran which has been repressed and tortured by the Islamic Republic". She commented that "In one of Britain’s top universities, it will foster crucial awareness of the regime’s tyrannical attitude towards education", and said that the scholarship could be Soltan's "most important legacy".
A day after publishing the letter from the Iranian embassy, an editorial
Editorial
An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...
in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
praised the college's actions. It described Soltan's death as a "brutal example" of a regime suppressing opposition, and said that the Iranian response to her death was giving 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 who had been detained for participating in the post-election protests. The sources said the scholarship had put "another nail into the coffin" of relations between Britain and Iran.