Soltan, whose death in post-election protests last year became a symbol of the opposition, has won asylum in Germany and is now speaking out politically.
“I have a personal link to her [the other Neda] because her death somehow caused a serious destruction of my life—not her immediate death but the consequences of her death,” Neda Soltani told Agence France Presse (AFP).
Images of Agha-Soltan bleeding to death on a Tehran street after being shot during a June 2009 demonstration were broadcast on the Internet and seen around the world.
The 26-year-old was viewed as a martyr. In a rush to get images, some media outlets mistakenly took a picture of Neda Soltani from her Facebook page and published it as Neda Agha-Soltan. Within days, the photo was printed on t-shirts, posters and in many newspapers around the world, though not in the Iran Times.
Soltani was a 32-year-old English literature lecturer at the University of Tehran. She says the Iranian regime tried to use her to fend off the bad publicity from Neda’s death..
“The Iranian regime wanted to use the confusion to its own advantage, by saying the tragic death had not taken place,” she said. “Because I did not want to cooperate with them, I was accused of treason and spying. I finally had to leave everything and seek asylum.
“I am really thankful and I must acknowledge my appreciation of the German authorities for giving me a second chance.
“It’s a very difficult life because I have to start everything all over again. I don’t have any relatives in Germany; my family lives in Iran.”
She said all political refugees want to go back home, “and for me it’s even stronger because I am not even here [in Europe] because of the consequences of my own actions,” she said. “I am here because of the fault of the media and the brutality of the Iranian regime, what they have done to me.”
Despite previously not being “a political person,” Soltani traveled to France Saturday to speak at an event hosted by the feminist movement Ni Putes Ni Soumises (Neither Whores Nor Submissive) in support of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, the Iranian woman facing death by stoning. The campaign for Ashtiani’s release is particularly strong in France, where a petition was signed by First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
Soltani said, “I cannot claim that I am a political person. However I can say that after being targeted by such a huge case, I cannot remain indifferent to the politics of my country and what is happening there. Sakineh suffers because she is a woman in a totalitarian system.”