Oxford Scholarship in the name of Neda

After Guardian 11 Nov 2009
A demonstrator holds a photo of dead Iranian student Neda Agha-Soltan during a protest in New York
COURTESY Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Queen's College Oxford naming philosophy scholarship after young student Neda Agha-Soltan killed in Tehran.

The first holder of the scholarship, Arianne Shahvisi, is studying for a master's degree in the philosophy of physics. In a statement on the college's website, she said: "It is a great honour to be the first student to receive the scholarship in the memory of Neda Agha-Soltan, which is particularly meaningful to me, being a young woman of Iranian descent also studying philosophy."

BACKGROUND. Guardian informs that Queen's College announced the graduate scholarship in memory of Neda Agha-Soltan who died in June at the age of 27.

Her final moments were captured on a mobile phone and broadcast round the world, making her a symbol of Iranian resistance.

A donor contacted Queen's College after her death, to set up the scholarship in philosophy, the subject she had been studying, for Iranian students. The first recipient is now studying at Queen's.

The college said today that a letter it receieved from the Iranian embassy in London said Agha-Soltan's death had been staged by enemies of the regime. The letter accused the university of joining a "politically motivated" campaign in creating the scholarship.

Queen's replied that donors are allowed to decide what to call any scholarship they fund. The name of the donor of this scholarship has not been made public.

Professor Paul Madden, provost of college, said: "The college is keen to support graduate students and this scholarship will help Iranian students to study at Oxford, regardless of their financial background.

"Donors make their own decisions, within reason, on how to name scholarships that they fund.

"In this case, the donor who was instrumental in establishing the scholarship is a British citizen and is well known to the college."

ON NEDA AGHA-SOLTAN. See also another blog entry from this summer.

The work of an artist...

The work of an artist is to change the value of things. @yokoono July 2009

One doctor who tried to save Neda when shot Saturday

A reaction on Neda

Many people have shared their feelings about the killed Iranian woman Neda. A British blogger, Jenny, wrote the following as part of a longer post:

- Saturday night was an extraordinarily harrowing and humbling experience. I followed the events though the hashtag and regular ReTweets from @debaucherydean who did a great job filtering out some of the noise, and at one stage organised a phone campaign to the Foreign Office to ensure their Tehran embassy was open to the injured. At one point a video was posted showing the aftermath from the shooting of a young woman. She was being carried by a group of protesters and they laid her on the road as her father ran over. At first you could see no sign of a wound. As she lay their her eyes glazed and then blood started to seep out all over her face, from her eyes, from her nose, from her mouth… and then she died. It was the most stark and upsetting video I have ever seen and to know It had happened just moments earlier made it all the more real. This video brought home the plight of the Iranian protesters, with heavy heavy thud. We later found out that her name was Neda. Her face with live with me for a long time. I’m not sure whether to post the link to the video. If anyone wishes to see it then I guess you can track it down.

Other tweets that night were for information between protesters. Advice was given as to how to be protected from chemical attack. Information was posted as to which foreign embassies were taking in the injured. We also say great compassion from the protesters. One picture showing a fallen riot police motorcyclist being shielded by a protester was particularly humbling.
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JENNY ends by also providing some info on Twitter:

- A Twitter week from the mundane to the vital. Twitter Terms Explained :

Tweet = a short message under 140 characters, can contain links to pictures or videos

@username = your twitterer username

Followers = the people / feeds that you follow and follow you

RT or ReTweet = a tweet passed on

Hashtag or #something = a webpage automatically created to elicit shared real time contributions on a topic

Posted by Jenny Harvey at 22:02 Source: http://jenny-vs-theworld.bl...

Neda - a victim of brutal action in Tehran

Courtesy: arta07
http://twitpic.com/817ft


According to Iranian sources via Twitter and elsewhere, Neda Soltani was a 27 year old philosophy student in Tehran. She was with her father when she was brutally killed on the street.

She has become a martyr, and a symbol, for the uprising for human rights and free election in Iran and she is becoming known for the supporting world.

Neda means voice in Farsi. Voicing is what many women and men are doing just now on the streets and thru all kinds of media.

Later on Sunday 21. June I found a reference on Twitter to a new Wikipedia article: RT @idrawhouses Neda (Iranian protester)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://bit.ly/8cDwu

Women in the forefront of Iran upraising

Women in the forefront (of the protests)... Says Azar Nasifi, author of Reading Lolita in Iran on CNN today.

This is noticed also when twittering, many women are very active and well linked with other protesters it seems. Cannot name them here as yet.

Retweat, do not know if confirmed
@IranRiggedElect: Zhila Baniyaghoob (journalist, women's rights activist) has been arrested (via @iranbaan) #iranelection

Do not know where Rafsanjani's daughter is at the moment, it seems she is still in Iran (she and a brother were probably stopped leaving Tehran, according to previous tweats).

Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of Mousavi stepped up today for the people's march 20.6.009.

Aung San Suu Kyi 64 years 19 June 2009

Courtesy for photo THe Guardian, Getty.
Burmese demonstrators in New Delhi pray for Aung San Suu Kyi on her 64th birthday. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images/AFP/Getty Images

Aung San Suu Kyi is 64 today.

"She marks this milestone, as she has so many before, in detention – this time within the confines of Rangoon's notorious Insein jail, almost two decades after the election victory of her party.

Millions in this country have never seen Aung San Suu Kyi but she remains the thread which connects many of them to hope
They've never heard her speak. Many probably have only a vague idea of her views. But they know very well what she represents. They know very well how their lives have changed for the worse in the two decades she has been gone and what is at stake in this trial.

Ranged against her and the other brave people who struggle for a better future is an intimidating apparatus. An army over 350,000 strong. A different intelligence organisation for every day of the week. Eyes and ears everywhere. Crushing of the most minor displays of dissent. Yet for the last few weeks this unequal contest has shrunk itself down to a lone figure in the courtroom.

Aung San Suu Kyi once said that those struggling against oppression had no alternative but to draw on their "own inner resources" as they fought for their inalienable rights "as members of the human family". It's this core of dignity and determination that has won the admiration of the world ever since and which has shone through in her court appearances. Poised and dignified. Utterly assured. Mixing humour and seriousness and showing no hint of exasperation at the absurdity around her.

One could be forgiven for wondering who was on trial, captor or accused."

Posted by
Mark Canning Friday 19 June 2009 12.19 BST
guardian.co.uk
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Aung San Suu Kyi spends her 64th birthday in Rangoon's Insein jail
Latest post in a series by the British ambassador in Burma, Mark Canning, one of the few outsiders who has been allowed into the courtroom during the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mirriaam's hand raised for freedom in Tehran

http://img.piqlet.com/img0623.jpg
18 june. Imam sq. my hand :)