Iran Complains About Oxford’s New Scholarship Honoring Slain Protester

The Iranian government has protested a new scholarship the University of Oxford has established in the name of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman whose filmed death during the widespread demonstrations following the disputed Iranian presidential election last summer became an emblematic moment for the protest movement. According to the Associated Press and the BBC, the Iranian Embassy in London complained in a letter to Queen’s College, Oxford, that the $6,600 graduate scholarship, open to all philosophy students with preference for those of Iranian origin, was “politically motivated.” The college did not reveal who had donated the money for the scholarship.