The 26 year old student at Tehran University was killed during a rally of thousands of opposition members, sparked by the wave of civil discontent spreading across the Middle East in the wake of the Egyptian revolution.

A report on Iran’s state-run media claimed that supporters of “sedition” clashed with the pro-government supporters during the funeral, while the BBC reported that police had blocked all roads around the university.

“Students and the people attending the funeral ceremony of the martyred student Sanee Zhaleh have clashed with a limited number of people apparently linked to the sedition movement and forced them out by chanting slogans of death to hypocrites,” the media outlet stated, while opposition groups claimed 1500 people had been detained.

The government has claimed that Zhaleh, a Sunni Kurd and fine arts student, was a member of the volunteer Islamist Basij militia – a claim disputed by the opposition, who accuse the government of pressuring his family to say Zhaleh was pro government.

The protest is the first since an uprising in February 2010 was suppressed by the government, however rising discontent directed at the region’s more unpopular leaders makes Iran a likely candidate for further civil strife.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has meanwhile embraced the Egyptian revolution and departure of President Hosni Mubarak as the dawning of a “new Middle East” – drawing parallels with his own country’s 1979 revolution.

Ahmadinejad reportedly told crowds in Tehran that Mubarak’s departure was likely to bring major changes to global politics.

“In spite of all the (West’s) complicated and satanic designs … a new Middle East is emerging without the Zionist regime and US interference, a place where the arrogant powers will have no place,” he said.