One was a 23-year-old budding fashion designer, another a prospective engineering student bound for Tehran. There was also a mother, father and son who had once considered emigrating as a family in hopes of a better life.
All were killed in the protests that convulsed Iran for weeks starting in late December, according to their families and human rights groups. The demonstrations began over economic malaise but swelled into a nationwide anti-government movement that posed the most serious threat to the regime in years.
The government violently quelled the protests, and authorities imposed a stringent internet and communication blackout that has made it difficult to know the magnitude of the crackdown and the death toll. Rights groups say thousands have been killed.
The New York Times has been able to piece together some of the stories of those who have been killed in recent weeks, through interviews with their family members outside the country and reports by human rights groups. Not all of the details could be independently verified.
Some of those family members had recently left Iran, while others said they had managed to receive international phone calls from relatives in Iran this month, during a brief respite from the blackout.
The families said that their loved ones were motivated to join the protests by a desire for change in Iran.
The Iranian government did not respond to a request for comment regarding any of the cases detailed in this story.
Iran says the protests began as legitimate demonstrations by people expressing their economic grievances but quickly escalated into riots organized by foreign infiltrators. Iranian authorities have accused the United States and Israel of being behind the violence.
The protesters’ families, however, offer sharply different accounts.
“He went out for freedom,” Ensieh Raoufi said of her cousin, Sorena Golgoon, 18, who she said was killed in early January while protesting in his hometown, the coastal city of Tonekabon. Raoufi said she spoke to both of Golgoon’s parents after his death.
The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, which is based in Norway and monitored the unrest in Iran, reported that Golgoon had been killed during the protests.
The group said in a statement on social media that Golgoon was “killed by direct fire from Iranian government forces” and that his family was “under intense pressure from government authorities to falsely claim that he was killed by protesters.”
In a phone interview, Raoufi, who lives in France, described her cousin as a kind and generous person. Weeks before his death, she said, he had given his jacket to a homeless person amid a winter chill. Raoufi said that Golgoon’s dream of working for an international car manufacturer led him to pursue studies in mechanical engineering in the capital, Tehran.
The loss had left the family in profound sorrow, Raoufi said. “Their grief is endless.”
Robina Aminian, a 23-year-old fashion student, had just finished a college exam in early January when she decided to join the protests in Tehran, according to her aunt, Hali Nouri, who lives in Norway.
Nouri said that she was told by her sister, Ameneh Nouri, who identified Aminian’s body, that Aminian was shot in the head. Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based advocacy organization, published a report on Aminian’s death, saying that a shooting occurred on the night of Jan. 8 after she left the Shariati Technical and Vocational College for Girls, where she was a student.
The youngest in her family, Aminian was an avid guitarist and had a creative and kind spirit, Hali Nouri said. She was also known for weaving traditional Iranian elements into her designs. “She knew what she wanted in life,” Nouri said. “She wanted to be free, to live unrestrained.”
Nouri said her sister and six other relatives told her that authorities in Marivan, a city in western Iran, had disrupted Aminian’s memorial service. She said that it was canceled after security officers, stationed outside the home of a family member, prevented some relatives from paying their respects.
The Marivan governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
According to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a Washington-based organization, more than 6,200 people were killed, most of them protesters. Iran Human Rights, based in Norway, estimated the toll at more than 3,400.
In one case, several members of one family were killed.
Zahra Bani-Amerian, her husband, Bijan Mostafavi; and their son, Danial Mostafavi, were shot in their car by government forces during protests in Karaj, west of Tehran, earlier this month, according to a report by Hengaw, the rights group.
Two relatives of the family who spoke to the Times said the family was shot in the city. They said that another son, Davoud Mostafavi, 27, was injured.
The relatives were Michael Askari, who lives in Turkey and said he is Bani-Amerian’s cousin, and Abbas, who left Iran earlier this month. Abbas requested that only his first name be used and did not want to publicize his relationship to the deceased for fear of retribution.
Askari said that Bani-Amerian had sent him a text message just days before her death, saying that the government was killing people “one by one.” In a screenshot of the message shared with the Times, Bani-Amerian said that she felt other countries were failing to help Iranians amid the crackdown.
Bani-Amerian, 48, was a retired employee of Iran’s Social Security Organization, and was curious, humorous and loved singing, Askari said. Her husband, Mostafavi, 56, had for years been a beloved teacher in Sonqor in western Iran, according to the two relatives.
Their son, Danial, 19, was cheerful and loved video games. At one point, the family considered leaving Iran for Turkey, but Mostafavi hesitated, saying emigrating and starting over at his age wasn’t easy, Askari added.
Abbas said that, before leaving Iran earlier this month, he had been involved in arrangements for the family’s funeral in Sonqor.
Authorities imposed restrictions on the service, he said, and compelled them to bury their loved ones before sunrise. The Hengaw rights group said in a statement that the family was buried under tight security measures.
Askari said that he was determined to find ways to preserve the memory of the family. “I will not let them be forgotten in silence,” he said.
The New York Times News Service