Iran’s regime denounced the University of Oxford yesterday because one of its colleges has established a scholarship honouring Neda Soltan, the Iranian student killed during street protests in Tehran over the alleged rigging of the presidential election.

In a letter sent from the Iranian Embassy, the regime claimed that Miss Soltan’s death in June was staged by its enemies. It accused the university of joining a “politically motivated” campaign that would “undermine your scientific credibility” and “make Oxford at odd [sic] with the rest of the world’s academic institutions”.

In response, the university emphasised that the decision to award the scholarship was entirely a matter for the college, Queen’s. Professor Paul Madden, Provost of Queen’s, said that the scholarship would help impoverished Iranians to study at Oxford.

Miss Soltan, a philosophy student, was 26 when she was shot in the chest during a demonstration over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election that engulfed Tehran on June 20. Video footage of blood pouring from her mouth as she lay dying sped around the world. Miss Soltan became an emblem of the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom, and her death a symbol of the regime’s brutality.

The regime refused Miss Soltan a proper funeral and did its best to deny responsibility for her death. Senior officials variously claimed that she had been killed by MI6, by the CIA, by the opposition to discredit the Government and by the BBC to obtain compelling pictures.

But Arash Hejazi, a doctor who tried to save her life, fled to Britain and confirmed in an interview with The Times that she had been killed by the security forces. Dr Hejazi said that she had been shot by a government militiaman (Basiji) on a motorbike who was caught by other demonstrators and protested that he had only meant to shoot her in the leg.

One Briton was so moved by Miss Soltan’s death that he offered to finance a graduate scholarship in philosophy at Queen’s in her name. A second British donor, also anonymous, stepped forward. The idea was quickly accepted by the provost and 37 fellows on the college’s governing body.

“We didn’t dwell too much on the possibility of it giving offence in some quarters,” said one participant. “Most of us thought it the right thing to do.”

Queen’s posted a statement on its website recently saying it was delighted to establish the scholarship, worth about £4,000 over two years, and named the first beneficiary as Arianne Shahvisi, 22, who is studying philosophy of physics.

It quoted Ms Shahvisi as saying that the award was “particularly meaningful to me, being a young woman of Iranian descent, also studying philosophy”. She offered condolences to Miss Soltan’s family, adding: “I hope that in succeeding in my studies at Oxford I can do justice to the name of their brave and gifted daughter.”

She added: "Funding for philosophy is hard to come by, so I'm very grateful to the benefactors who funded the scholarship, without which I might not have been able to take up my place at Oxford."

She graduated from Cambridge with a First in Astrophysics and is interested in a career in the foundations of physics.

The Iranian letter, sent in the name of the deputy ambassador Safarali Eslamian, continued to assert that Miss Soltan’s death had been orchestrated to undermine the regime and was part of a pattern of British interference.

It claimed that her killers filmed her as she was shot on an “isolated street far from protesters”. It said that Dr Hejazi, whom it erroneously described as an Oxford Fellow, had arrived in Tehran two days before the killing and swiftly returned to Britain afterwards. “There is further supporting evidence indicating a pre-made scenario,” it insisted.

Dr Hejazi, who is studying at Oxford Brookes University, applauded Queen’s for establishing the scholarship, saying that Miss Soltan epitomised the “hopes and dreams for freedom” of the Iranian people. He worried only that the regime might punish her family.

He expressed outrage at the regime’s suggestion that he was part of a murder plot, adding that he was not the only person who witnessed the events. “I know five other people who were there and could testify about what happened, but they’re in Iran so I cannot name them,” he said.

An Iranian academic said the letter from the embassy showed how seriously Miss Soltan’s death had damaged the regime. “The pictures have destroyed its legitimacy inside Iran, and showed what everyone suspected — that this is a brutal regime prepared to kill its own youth to maintain power.”

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