Neda Soltani (fa|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.
Within two weeks, she had to flee from Iran to avoid arrest.[3] She was granted asylum in Germany in 2010.[4] [5] [6]
, Soltani remains exiled from Iran and is under Germany's asylum.[7]
She has authored a book, My Stolen Face, narrating her story of the incident.[8]