Neda Soltani ( Persian: ندا سلطانی; born 1977, in Isfahan [1]) is an Iranian exile. During the 2009 Iranian election protests, she was teaching English at Azad University [2] when her Facebook profile photo was mistakenly published in many articles about the death of the similarly named Neda Agha-Soltan, who was shot and killed during the protests.
As a result, her identity was confused with that of Agha-Soltan, to whom she bore a superficial facial resemblance. She tried vainly removing her photo from the Internet and the media. Claims and counter-claims were made, including claims from the Iranian government that she was the same person as Agha-Soltan, and had faked her death, and others who claimed that she was herself an agent of the Iranian government, impersonating Agha-Soltan to sully her memory. [3]
Within two weeks, she had to flee from Iran to avoid arrest. [4] She was granted asylum in Germany in 2010. [5] [6] [7]
As of 2012 [update], Soltani remains exiled from Iran and is under Germany's asylum. [3]
She has authored a book, My Stolen Face, narrating her story of the incident. [8]