Iran Holocaust
Chapter 3 · Names, not numbers

Faces of the Dead.

Each of these people was a single life inside the figure of more than forty thousand killed across the two-night strikes and the wider Woman, Life, Freedom uprising. The state preferred them counted; here they are recognised.

Content warning. The photographs below show victims of state killings, public executions and mass graves. They are documentary images from independent international press, Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons, Iran Human Rights and Human Rights Watch, included so the dead are not abstractions.

Mosaic of hundreds of named victims of the January 2026 crackdown in Iran — faces verified by independent international press and human-rights monitors.
Hundreds of named victims of the January 2026 crackdown — a single panel of the faces verified, one by one, by independent international press and human-rights monitors. Composite from family photographs and verification archives, used here for documentary purposes.
Body bags lined up during Iran's January 2026 crackdown — leaked photographs from independent international press.
Body bags from Iran's January 2026 crackdown — leaked photographs published by independent international press and central to the dispute over Iran's death toll. Editorial fair use.
Portrait of Mohsen Shekari, executed in Iran on 8 December 2022.
Mohsen Shekari, 23 — the first protester executed by the Islamic Republic during the Woman Life Freedom uprising. Hanged on 8 December 2022 after a closed-door trial on charges of “moharebeh” (waging war against God) for allegedly wounding a Basij member with a knife at a Tehran roadblock. Family handout via international press.
Portrait of Majidreza Rahnavard, publicly hanged in Mashhad on 12 December 2022.
Majidreza Rahnavard, 23 — publicly hanged from a construction crane in Mashhad on 12 December 2022, four days after Shekari. The regime broadcast the image of his body in the street as warning. Photograph via international press.
Portrait of Hadis Najafi, killed in Karaj in September 2022.
Hadis Najafi, 22 — killed in Karaj on 21 September 2022, shot multiple times during a Mahsa Amini protest. A video of her tying back her hair before stepping toward the riot line became a banner image of the uprising. Photograph: family, via Wikipedia (fair use).
Portrait of Nika Shakarami, who disappeared during a Tehran protest and was found dead.
Nika Shakarami, 16 — disappeared after burning her headscarf at a Tehran protest on 20 September 2022. Her body was returned to her family ten days later; a 2023 international press investigation concluded she was sexually assaulted and killed in custody by security agents. Photograph: family, via Wikipedia (fair use).
Portrait of Kian Pirfalak, a 9-year-old boy shot dead in Izeh in November 2022.
Kian Pirfalak, 9 — shot dead in his father’s car in Izeh on 16 November 2022. The state blamed “terrorists”; his mother stood at his funeral and told the country, in front of the cameras, that the regime had killed her son. Photograph: family, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA).
Women remove their headscarves over the coffin of Mahsa Amini at her funeral in Saqqez.
Saqqez, 17 September 2022 — women pull off their headscarves over the coffin of Mahsa Jina Amini, the gesture that lit the uprising. Photograph via international press.
Verified executions · spring 2026

Names the regime tried to bury.

  • Sasan Azadvar — young protester from Isfahan, arrested over the January 2026 protests, hanged at Isfahan Central Prison on 30 April 2026; the tenth protester executed within 42 days. Source: Iran Human Rights, 30 April 2026.
  • Amirhossein Hatami, 18 — industrial-design student at the University of Tehran, executed on 2 April 2026; authorities continued to withhold his body from his family days later. Source: Iran International, April 2026.
  • Mohammadamin Biglari and Shahin Vahedparast Kalur — co-defendants in the Mahmoud Kaveh Basij base case, executed on 5 April 2026. Source: Iran International.
  • Ali Fahim — same case, executed on 6 April 2026; Abolfazl Salehi Siavashani sentenced to death in the same group. Source: Iran International.
Portraits · 2026 protests and executions

Faces the regime tried to erase.

Photographs released by families and verified by independent international press and Iran International's Javidnaman (“immortal names”) archive of those killed in the January 2026 uprising.

Portrait of Sasan Azadvar Jonaqani, 21, hanged in Isfahan on 30 April 2026.
Sasan Azadvar Jonaqani, 21 — arrested during the January 2026 Isfahan protests, hanged at Dastgerd Prison on 30 April 2026. His funeral was held under a security cordon, with only 10 relatives admitted. Photograph: family, via international press, 30 April 2026.
Portrait of Ahmad Kazemi Shahroui, killed in Bandar Abbas on 8 January 2026.
Ahmad Kazemi Shahroui — well-known athlete and shopkeeper in the Bandar Abbas day-market, killed during the 8 January 2026 protests. “Nothing matters more than the people,” he told friends days before. Photograph via Iran International · Javidnaman.
Portrait of Khaled Mollaie, 19, shot dead in Bandar Abbas on 8 January 2026.
Khaled Mollaie, 19 — third-semester industrial-management student at the University of Hormozgan, shot in the head in central Bandar Abbas on the evening of 8 January 2026. Photograph via Iran International · Javidnaman.
Portrait of Hossein Radi, 24, a diver and firefighter from Najafabad killed in the 2026 protests.
Hossein Radi, 24 — diver and firefighter from Najafabad, Isfahan; had returned from work in Armenia to visit family days before he was killed in the January 2026 protests. Photograph via Iran International.
Portrait of Mosayyeb Nezami, a 32-year-old farmer killed in Borujerd on 8 January 2026.
Mosayyeb Nezami, 32 — farmer from Borujerd, wounded on 8 January 2026 and finished off with a “coup de grâce” shot to the heart in hospital. His family refused security pressure to label him a basij. Photograph via Iran International.
Portrait of Alireza Safavi Fazeli flashing a victory sign, killed on 8 January 2026.
Alireza Safavi Fazeli — shot dead by security forces on the night of 8 January 2026. The last image of him alive shows him flashing a V-for-victory sign. Photograph via Iran International.
Portrait of Ali Tavasoli, avionics specialist killed shielding his 14-year-old son in Tehran.
Ali Tavasoli — avionics specialist and veteran airport engineer; on 9 January 2026 he was shot dead in Andisheh, Tehran while shielding his 14-year-old son with his body. Photograph via Iran International.
Portrait of Saleheh Akbari, an Ardabil nurse shot in the heart while defending her husband from arrest.
Saleheh Akbari — nurse from Ardabil; on 12 January 2026 she stepped in front of her husband Ahmad Khodayi as agents tried to arrest him and was shot through the heart. Photograph via Iran International.
Portrait of Jafar Javidi, 29, killed by a live round at Haft-e Tir Square, Mashhad.
Jafar Javidi, 29 — killed by a live military round at Haft-e Tir Square, Mashhad, during the January 2026 protests. Photograph via Iran International.
Portrait of Meysam Kazemi, Tehran firefighter killed off-duty in Parand on 9 January 2026.
Meysam Kazemi — Tehran firefighter and athlete; joined the protests off-duty and was beaten with batons, then shot in the neck in Parand on the evening of 9 January 2026. Photograph via Iran International.
Portrait of Naser Shirazi-Karameh, fire-rescue commander killed trying to save a wounded protester in Eslamshahr.
Naser Shirazi-Karameh, 44 — fire-and-rescue commander with 22 years of service, shot dead in Eslamshahr on 8 January 2026 while trying to evacuate a wounded protester. Photograph via Iran International.
Portrait of Saleh Mohammadi, the 19-year-old Iranian wrestler executed in March 2026.
Saleh Mohammadi, 19 — junior national-team freestyle wrestler, bronze-medallist at the 2024 Sayitiev Cup; executed on 19 March 2026 alongside two others. Olympic champions called the hanging “a human catastrophe.” Source: Iran International, 19 March 2026.
Portrait of Amirhossein Hatami, 18, executed on 2 April 2026.
Amirhossein Hatami, 18 — student, hanged at dawn on 2 April 2026 after a closed-door trial; Mizan, the judiciary's news agency, labelled him a “terrorist.” Source: Iran International, 2 April 2026.
Portrait of Nader Mowlavi, 18, footballer killed in Shahr-e Rey.
Nader Mowlavi, 18 — footballer for Hami Tehran and lifelong Esteghlal fan, shot dead by security forces in Shahr-e Rey square on the evening of 9 January 2026. Source: Iran International, 9 February 2026.
Portrait of Mehdi Mehmadi Kartelai, 16, killed by live ammunition in Shushtar.
Mehdi Mehmadi Kartelai, 16 — schoolboy from Shushtar, Khuzestan; shot dead by a live military round on the evening of 9 January 2026. His body was released only after his family signed a pledge of silence. Source: Iran International, 20 May 2026.
Portrait of Ali Heydari, 20, killed in custody in Mashhad after 33 days of enforced disappearance.
Ali Heydari, 20 — wounded and arrested in Mashhad on 8 January 2026, then held incommunicado for 33 days; killed by a shot to the forehead inside detention. Body returned on 9 February 2026. Source: Iran International, 12 February 2026.
Portrait of Reza Bahmani Alijanvand, 34, killed in Shahin-Shahr.
Reza Bahmani Alijanvand, 34 — disappeared after the 8 January 2026 protests in Shahin-Shahr, Isfahan; his body was found in a cemetery morgue five days later with two live-round wounds. Source: Iran International, 2 February 2026.
Portrait of the Mostafavi family — Bijan, Zahra Bani-Amerian and Daniyal — killed together in Karaj on 9 January 2026.
Bijan Mostafavi (55), Zahra Bani-Amerian (48) and Daniyal Mostafavi (19) — retired teacher, retired social-security clerk and their computer-science-student son, machine-gunned together in their family car in Karaj on the evening of 9 January 2026. Their elder son Davoud was wounded but survived. Source: Iran International, 15 January 2026.

Photographs courtesy of the families and the independent international press and Iran International (Javidnaman) verification units, used here for documentary and human-rights reporting purposes.

From the verified victim archives · January 2026

The girls and the boys.

Independent press verification units have identified more than 300 of those killed in the January 1404 (December 2025–January 2026) protests. The following selection focuses on the women, girls and youngest victims whose identities have been confirmed by name, date and place of death. Photographs are held by the families and editorial archives and are not reproduced here pending consent.

Women and girls

  • Aynaz Rahimi, 13 — schoolgirl, killed in Najafabad, Isfahan.
  • Ghazal Janghorban, 15 — schoolgirl, killed in Isfahan on 9 January 2026 by three live rounds.
  • Setareh Rafiei, 19 — shot dead in Tehranpars, east Tehran, on 8 January 2026.
  • Parnia Khalaji, 21 — killed by gunfire in South Mehrabad, Tehran, on 9 January 2026.

Children and teenagers

  • Abolfazl Vahidi, 13 — shot in the throat in Naziabad, Tehran, on 8 January 2026.
  • Abolfazl Norouzi, 15 — mechanic's apprentice, killed in Mashhad on 8 January.
  • Amirmohammad Safari, 15 — from Banlar Ziudar village in Lorestan, killed in Yaftabad, Tehran, where he had migrated for work with his father.
  • Amirmehdi Moradi Goldareh, 15 — schoolboy, killed in Qaemiyeh, Islamshahr on 9 January by a bullet to the spine. He had told his family he wanted to buy a car when he turned 18.
  • Sepehr Soltani, 15 — ninth-grade student, killed in Malek-Shahr, Isfahan on 10 January.
  • Masih Bigdeli, 15 — Isfahan, 9 January: wounded by buckshot in the leg, then killed by a live round to the head.
  • Samyar Alipour, 15 — killed by combined buckshot and live rounds in Khak-e-Sefid neighbourhood, Tehran.
  • Mehdi Mehmadi Kartelai, 16 — student, killed by a sniper round to the heart in Shushtar on 9 January as he was walking home.
  • Abolfazl Bajool, 16 — schoolboy, killed in Villashahr, Najafabad, Isfahan on 9 January — just 12 days after his 16th birthday.
  • Benyamin Eqdami, 16 — schoolboy from Fardis, joined the protests on 8 January; according to a source close to the family, he was arrested and "killed in custody." His body was identified on 13 January.
  • Meysam Bijani Zare, 16 — killed in Shahriar on 9 January by a bullet to the abdomen.
  • Reybin Moradi, 17 — footballer, went to his club for a match on 8 January and never came home.
  • Mohammad Ahmadi, 17 — killed by buckshot in Vakil-Abad Boulevard, Mashhad.
  • Amirali Heydari Jafarabadi, 17 — mechanic, killed in Kermanshah on 8 January by "a Kalashnikov round" three days before his 18th birthday.
  • Ali Abazari, 18 — accounting student, killed in Valiasr township, Tehran on 9 January.
  • Mani, 18 — killed by a bullet to the spleen in Qaemiyeh, Islamshahr on 8 January, in his grandparents' arms, an hour and a half after his 44-year-old father Mehdi was shot dead a few alleys away.
  • Yazdan Tamana, 19 — electrical engineering student, killed by a bullet to the head in Mashhad on 8 January.
  • Mohammadreza Saremi, 19 — killed by a bullet to the head during the Lahijan protests on 8 January.

Young men in their twenties

  • Amirmohammad Ghourt-Biglu, 22 — carpet-wash worker, killed in Qaemiyeh, Islamshahr on 8 January by two live rounds.
  • Mohammad Asadi Ghafari, 22 — killed on 9 January on Robat Sevvom Street, Malek-Shahr, Isfahan, by a bullet to the leg.
  • Reza Esmaili, 23 — killed in the Zeynabieh neighbourhood of Isfahan on the evening of 8 January.
  • Sadra Soltani, 23 — master's student in architecture, shot through the heart in Tehran's Narmak district, Haft-Howz Square, in front of his family on 8 January.
  • Mohammad Jabbari, 26 — killed by security-force fire in the small Isfahan town of Dizicheh on 8 January.
  • Alireza Robat-Jazi, 27 — wounded by a shot from behind near his home in Nazarabad, Alborz province, on the night of 9 January.
  • Ali Mousapour Parcheli, 29 — killed by a bullet in Rahbar Square, Tehranpars on 8 January.
  • Aref Mirmousavi-Dehshal, 33 — protester from Lahijan, shot dead at the Tehran protests.
The streets, the prisons, the diaspora

From Tehran 2009 to Berlin 2026.

What the cameras saw — the visual archive the diaspora has refused to let disappear, from the streets of Tehran to the Iranian crowds rallying behind Reza Pahlavi in Washington, London, Toronto, Sydney and Berlin.

Iranians rally in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. in solidarity with protesters inside Iran.
Washington, D.C., 24 September 2022 — Iranian-Americans rally in front of the White House calling for the end of the Islamic Republic and the return of Reza Pahlavi. Photograph via Wikimedia Commons.
Iranian protesters fill Parliament Square in London for Mahsa Amini, October 2022.
London, Parliament Square, 8 October 2022 — tens of thousands of Iranians and supporters demand freedom for Iran and the fall of the regime. Photograph via Wikimedia Commons.
Iranian-Americans rally for freedom in California holding Lion-and-Sun flags.
California, October 2022 — Iranian-Americans in “Tehrangeles” raise the Lion-and-Sun flag and portraits of Reza Pahlavi. Photograph via Wikimedia Commons.
Tens of thousands march through Berlin's Tiergarten on 22 October 2022 carrying Iranian flags and Woman Life Freedom signs.
Berlin Tiergarten, 22 October 2022 — the largest Iranian solidarity rally in Europe to date, around 80,000 attendees. Photo: Leonhard Lenz, Wikimedia (CC0).
Portrait of Iranian human rights defender Narges Mohammadi.
Narges Mohammadi — 2023 Nobel Peace laureate, currently in Evin Prison. Portrait via Wikimedia Commons.
Portrait of Mahsa Amini's father Amjad Amini.
Amjad Amini — Mahsa's father, who refused the state's narrative of his daughter's death. Photograph via family, in international press.
The Green Movement's silent march through Tehran, June 2009.
Tehran, June 2009 — the Green Movement's silent march. Where is my vote? Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Mural of Neda Agha-Soltan painted on a wall in Nazareth.
Neda Agha-Soltan, painted in Nazareth — the icon the regime could not erase. Photograph via Wikimedia Commons.
A gas station ablaze during Iran's November 2019 fuel-price protests.
Bloody November, 2019 — at least 304 protesters killed in less than a week, internet shut down. Photograph via Wikimedia Commons.
Portrait of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi.
Toomaj Salehi — rapper, sentenced to death and back; voice of a generation. Portrait via Wikimedia Commons.
Exterior of Evin Prison in northern Tehran.
Evin Prison, Tehran — the institutional centre of forty-seven years of repression. Photograph via Wikimedia Commons.
A Gasht-e Ershad morality-police van parked on a Tehran street.
Gasht-e Ershad — the morality-police vehicle Mahsa Amini was forced into. Photograph via Wikimedia Commons.
Ayatollah Khomeini stepping off a plane on his return to Iran in February 1979.
February 1979 — Khomeini returns to Tehran. Within ten days, the executions began. Photograph via Wikimedia Commons.
Revolutionary demonstration in Tehran, February 1979.
Tehran, February 1979 — mass demonstration during the days that followed Khomeini's return. Photograph via Wikimedia Commons.
Names beyond the count

Each photograph is a refusal of erasure.

The children of the uprising.

Kian Pirfalak was nine years old when security forces fired into his family's car in Izeh on 16 November 2022. Nika Shakarami, sixteen, was abducted and killed in Tehran after burning her headscarf at a protest; the BBC later obtained an internal intelligence document confirming the regime's role. Sarina Esmailzadeh, also sixteen, was beaten to death in Karaj. At least 71 children have been documented killed since September 2022 — a figure the regime still officially disputes, and a figure that no honest accounting of the Islamic Republic can survive.

The artists, athletes, doctors.

Rapper Toomaj Salehi was sentenced to death in April 2024 for songs that named the killers; his sentence was later commuted under international pressure, but he remains imprisoned. Climber Elnaz Rekabi competed in Seoul without a hijab in October 2022 and returned to a house demolition and a televised confession. Doctors and nurses who treated wounded protesters — among them Dr. Parisa Bahmani and Aida Rostami, found dead in Tehran in December 2022 — were hunted for the act of medical care itself. The targeting was not collateral. It was the strategy.

The unnamed and the unburied.

Behind every photograph on this page are hundreds more the regime has worked to erase: bodies returned to families on the condition of silent burial, graves dug at night in Khavaran and other anonymous fields used since the 1988 prison massacres, families forbidden from holding fortieth-day memorials, mothers detained at their children's gravesides. To name the dead in a country that criminalises mourning is itself an act of resistance. This page exists so that act becomes harder to undo.