This page keeps the memory of 21 people whose names are linked with Miandoab, in the province of West Azerbaijan. Most of them, 17 people, were executed. 2 people lost their lives in custody, one person was killed by government forces outside the protests and one person gave their life in protests. The first date on this page is 20 Ordibehesht 1390 and the last 25 Shahrivar 1404.
Fifteen years, twenty names
The names from Miandoab are spread over many years, and no year has more than three names: 2 names in 1390, 2 names in 1392, 2 names in 1394, 3 names in 1395, 3 names in 1396, one name in 1397, one name in 1399, 2 names in 1400, one name in 1401, 3 names in 1403 and one name in 1404. Two days have two names each: 20 Ordibehesht 1390, with which the list begins, and 19 Esfand 1400.
The age range on this page is striking: from 22 to 83 years, with a median of 38 years. An 83-year-old man is on this list; someone who had a whole life behind him. No one under 18 is recorded on this page, and the sources have written of one person that she was a woman.
Mansour Arvand
Mansour Arvand was 39 years old. The source calls him “a well-known sports champion of Mahabad” and writes that he “founded the ‘Javanmardan’ bodybuilding club in the city of Mahabad in 1381.” He “had a high school diploma, was married and had two children aged 16 and 7.” His brother says that he “was proud of being Kurdish and always wore Kurdish clothes.”
The source remembers his good deeds: “To prevent the young people of Mahabad from being drawn into addiction, he had registered a large number of them free of charge at his sports club,” and he “was sensitive to respect for women's rights and worked for equal rights for women.”
He was executed in Miandoab Prison; according to the source, “secretly and without observing the regulations for the execution of sentences, including the right to a last visit.” His family learned of it only two days later, and “Mr Arvand's body and belongings were not handed over to his family and were buried by security agents in an unknown place.” The date the list has recorded for his execution is 6 Khordad 1394, although one of the reports speaks of 23 Khordad 1394. Mansour Arvand's charge was determined by the authorities; this page does not regard it as a verdict of his guilt.
Ali Mirzaei
Ali Mirzaei was executed on 19 Esfand 1400 in Miandoab; one of the two people who were hanged on that day. The source writes about him only: “He was married and had one child.” His age is not recorded in our sources. A few days before Nowruz, a child lost a father.
What we do not know
For the other nineteen people on this page, our sources have written nothing but a name, a date and sometimes an age. We do not know who the 83-year-old man on this list was and how he lost his life, or what happened to the two people who died in custody.
Sources and the incompleteness of the list
These 21 names are not all of those who were executed or killed in Miandoab. The real number is higher, and many executions, as we saw with Mansour Arvand, were carried out secretly and may never be reported with a name; we have recorded only names that have a source. The sources of this page are the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center and the Kurdistan Human Rights Network with 11 cases each, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (English-language) and the Iran Human Rights Society with 4 cases each, and HRANA and Haalvsh with one case each. If you knew one of these 21 people, if you trained with Mansour at the Javanmardan club, send us your memory or correction.