“Nothing matters more than the people.”
- Killed
- 8 January 2026, Bandar Abbas
- Occupation
- Shopkeeper, day-market; local athlete
- Cause
- Live fire by security forces during protest policing
- Documented by
- Iran International (Javidnaman), HRANA, Hengaw
Who was Ahmad Kazemi Shahroui?
Ahmad Kazemi Shahroui was a fixture of the Bandar Abbas day-market: a shopkeeper who had competed as an athlete locally and who was known on his street by first name. In the days before the January 2026 protests he told friends the line that his family later repeated at his graveside — that nothing mattered more than the people.
He was killed on the evening of 8 January 2026, the first of the two nights in which the Islamic Republic’s security forces used live ammunition against crowds in more than eighty Iranian towns and cities. Hormozgan province, on the Persian Gulf coast, was one of the worst-hit regions outside the capital, and Bandar Abbas lost several men in a single evening, among them the student Khaled Mollaie.
The Two Nights: 8–9 January 2026
On the nights of 8 and 9 January 2026 the Islamic Republic answered nationwide protests with sustained live fire in more than eighty towns and cities, under a near-total internet shutdown. Human-rights monitors describe those forty-eight hours as the deadliest episode of protest repression in the country since 1988, and the beginning of what Iranians now call the Crimson Winter.
Because the shutdown cut most of the country off from the outside world, the record of who died was assembled afterwards, name by name, from family testimony, burial permits, hospital documents and mobile phone footage recovered once connectivity returned. Ahmad Kazemi Shahroui is one of those names.
Video and archive
No verified video of Ahmad Kazemi Shahroui is in the public record that this project can confirm. The film below documents the events in which he was killed, and the Javidnaman archive holds the family photographs and case notes for the January 2026 dead.
Iran students stage the first large anti-government protests since the deadly crackdown. More documentary footage is collected on the videos page.
Sources
- Iran International · Javidnaman archive
- Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO)
- HRANA — Human Rights Activists News Agency
- Sources and methodology on this site
Why this page exists
Names surface for a few days and then disappear under the next news cycle. This page keeps a dated, citation-ready record of what is known about Ahmad Kazemi Shahroui, with the photograph his family chose to release and links to the monitors who verify such cases. Corrections and additional documentation are welcome through the organisations listed under sources and methodology.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Ahmad Kazemi Shahroui?
Ahmad Kazemi Shahroui, a well-known athlete and day-market shopkeeper in Bandar Abbas, was killed by security forces on 8 January 2026 during the first of the Two Nights.
When and where was Ahmad Kazemi Shahroui killed?
Ahmad Kazemi Shahroui was killed on 8 January 2026 in Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan province, during the crackdown of 8–9 January 2026 and the weeks that followed.
What were the Two Nights?
The Two Nights are 8 and 9 January 2026, when Iranian security forces used live ammunition against protesters in more than eighty towns and cities under a near-total internet shutdown. Monitors record them as the deadliest 48 hours of protest repression in Iran since 1988.
Who documented Ahmad Kazemi Shahroui’s death?
The case is recorded by independent monitors including Iran Human Rights, HRANA and Hengaw, and in Iran International’s Javidnaman ("immortal names") archive of those killed in the January 2026 uprising.
Related pages
- Khaled Mollaie — another biography from the same period.
- The Two Nights — 8–9 January 2026 in detail.
- The protest record · Faces · Victims database
- All memorial biographies · In Memoriam
