“She stepped in front of her husband. They shot her through the heart.”
- Profession
- Nurse
- Killed
- 12 January 2026, Ardabil
- Circumstances
- Shot while preventing her husband's arrest
- Documented by
- Iran International (Javidnaman), Hengaw
Who was Saleheh Akbari?
Saleheh Akbari was a nurse in Ardabil, the Azerbaijani-speaking provincial capital in Iran’s cold north-west. Nurses were among the most exposed professional groups of the Crimson Winter: they treated gunshot wounds that hospitals were ordered to report, and many were themselves detained for refusing to hand over patient lists.
On 12 January 2026, in the wave of night-time arrest raids that followed the Two Nights, agents came for her husband, Ahmad Khodayi. She stepped between them and was shot through the heart. Her death is documented in the Javidnaman archive alongside those of the women killed in Ardabil, Tabriz and Urmia in the same week.
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. Saleheh Akbari is one of those names.
Video and archive
No verified video of Saleheh Akbari is in the public record that this project can confirm. The film below documents the events in which she was killed, and the Javidnaman archive holds the family photographs and case notes for the January 2026 dead.
The hijab protests that changed Iran. 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 Saleheh Akbari, with the photograph her 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 Saleheh Akbari?
Saleheh Akbari, a nurse from Ardabil, was shot through the heart on 12 January 2026 after stepping in front of her husband as security agents tried to arrest him.
When and where was Saleheh Akbari killed?
Saleheh Akbari was killed on 12 January 2026 in Ardabil, 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 Saleheh Akbari’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
- Melina Asadi — 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
