Arak

This page is dedicated to 174 people from Arak whose names appear with a source in our list. 101 of them were executed and 64 were killed in protests. 2 people lost their lives in detention, 2 people were killed by government forces and 5 people have been sentenced to death. The earliest date on this page is 24 Farvardin 1390 and the latest 8 Mehr 1405.

Years and days

Most of the names from Arak come from one year: 100 names from the year 1404. After that come the year 1401 with 27 names and the year 1395 with 10 names. From 1398 and 1405 there are six names each on this page, from 1402 and 1403 five names each, and from 1396 and 1399 four names each. The other years, from 1390 to 1397, have one or two names each.

The heaviest day for Arak is 18 Dey 1404 with 19 names, and 19 Dey 1404 with 12 names comes after it. The days 21 Tir 1395 and 26 Mordad 1401 have 5 names each and 9 Ordibehesht 1398 four names. The youngest person on this page was 15 years old and the oldest 67, and the median of the ages is 27 years. 8 people were under 18 years of age, and there are 16 women in the list for Arak whose source stated that they were women.

The teenagers of Dey 1404

Amirmahdi Nematinejad, 17 years old, was a child labourer and worked in a tailor's shop to help with the family's expenses. He was killed on Thursday, 18 Dey 1404, in the protests in Shora Square in Arak by shots from government forces. His body was given to the family the next day, and they buried him with only a small crowd present. Ali Nouri, a teenage football player who dreamed of being cheered in big stadiums, was shot dead on the evening of the same day in Arak. In his last message he had written: “If I'm not there on the day of freedom, you dance beautifully in my place.” In his memorial it says: “A stadium was supposed to call your name; now a whole world knows your name.”

Abolfazl Eskandari, 19 years old, from Khalkhal, had begun his military service in Shazand only three months earlier and also worked at a mechanic's shop. He was killed on 18 Dey by a military round to the lung and the back of the neck. Amirhossein Goudarzi, an only child and an electrical engineering student who did bodybuilding and wrestling, was killed in those same days in Arak by three bullets. Babak Jamali, a singer and father of two young children, according to the source had gone to the protests “to build a better future for his children,” and was killed in Dey 1404.

Arak Prison, Ordibehesht 1402

On 18 Ordibehesht 1402, two men were executed in Arak Prison who, according to the sources, had criticised religion and superstition in Telegram channels. Sadrollah Fazeli Zare, 37 years old, a cabinet maker and one of the 11 children of a large family, “was inquisitive.” His body was buried the next day in Yasuj. Yousef Khoob Imcheh, father of three children, was also executed on the same day; according to the source, his family and even his court-appointed lawyer did not know about the execution of the sentence before it took place.

Vahid Heydari

Vahid Heydari, 23 years old, was a street vendor who set up his stall at the Arak bazaar. Only a few days after his arrest, on 15 Dey 1396, he died in the detention centre of Police Station 12 in Arak. The authorities announced the cause of death as “suicide,” but according to the source there were marks of a fracture and a deep depression on his head. His uncle said that he was not an addict and that “what (the official authorities) say is not true.”

About the sources and the incompleteness of this list

These 174 names are not all of those from Arak who were executed or killed; the real number is higher, and we record only a name that has a source. The largest share of the sources for this page is held by the Iran Human Rights Society with 75 cases; followed by HRANA / Human Rights Activists in Iran with 52, Iran International with 45, and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center and iranhrs.org with 37 cases each. Every name has at least one source, but some only one. For 23 of the people of Arak a description of their life is available. If you knew one of them, send us your memory or correction.