Image posted on the site "We Are All Neda".

Neda’s blood-stained face and frozen stare has come to symbolise the violent clashes between protestors and police or militia forces in Iran. She has become the icon of democracy advocates opposed to the re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But the authorities are trying hard to break her aura.

Neda, 27, was a philosophy student in Tehran. She was shot in the chest and killed during last Saturday’s protests in the city. Footage of her death was captured on a cellphone camera and were reportedly posted online on Facebook by Hamed R, an Iranian blogger living in the Netherlands.

The circumstances of Neda’s death have been at the centre of a heated debate on the Iranian web. According to her fiancé, Caspian Makan, who spoke on the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera, Neda was not even protesting that day. She was stuck in traffic with her music instructor due to the protests, and got out of the car to observe the protests when she was shot (see video below). Makan cites eyewitnesses as saying that Neda was deliberately targeted by Basiji militiamen, who theoretically do not have the right to bear arms. According to Makan, Neda was neither pro-Mousavi nor pro-Ahmadinejad, although she did take part in several pro-democracy rallies.

Several other far-fetched versions have circulated on official Iranian media. The Guardian quoted Iranian newspaper Jomhouri Islami as reporting that Neda was shot by a sniper from the People’s Moudjahiddin group, to reinforce anti-government propaganda.

The pro-Ahmadinejad newspaper Javan claimed that expelled BBC correspondent Jon Leyne orchestrated the shooting to enrich his coverage of the protests…

Authorities have not yet opened an official investigation into Neda’s death. She was reportedly buried on Sunday in the outskirts of Tehran, the authorities having apparently refused a public funeral or memorial for her in the capital.