Neda Soltani: 'The media mix-up that ruined my life'

[livingdead]

In June 2009, a woman was shot dead in a demonstration in Tehran. Neda Agha-Soltan became the face of the Iranian protest movement - except that it was not her face to begin with, but the face of university teacher Neda Soltani. Here, Neda Soltani tells her disturbing story.

On 21 June 2009, I went to my office early in the morning and opened my email account to find 67 Facebook "friend requests". Over the next few hours I received another 300 requests.

I didn't know then that my photo and name had appeared on websites and TV broadcasts across the world.

Students at the university where I worked were holding sit-ins and protests on campus, and since I was on the administrative board I could not go home at the usual time. I was still at work that evening when I received an email from someone I didn't know.

In this email I read that a girl called Neda Soltani - which is my name - had been killed on the streets of Tehran the day before. Since no information had been made available about her, this person was trying to find her on Facebook through a process of elimination - ruling out the other Neda Soltanis on the site.

Rest of the post here (you can also listen to her interview)


BBC News - Neda Soltani: 'The media mix-up that ruined my life'