This page keeps the memory of citizens of Afghanistan who were killed or executed in Iran, or who are now at risk of execution. This list contains 124 names: men and women, many of whom had come to Iran for work, had grown up in Iran, or had even been born in Iran. The earliest date in this list is 20 Ordibehesht 1388 and the latest is 29 Mordad 1405. We include a person on this page when their source has explicitly said that they were a citizen or national of Afghanistan; so there are undoubtedly other Afghan citizens in our overall list whose source did not mention their nationality.
Fates
Most of the names on this page, 114 people, were executed. 3 people lost their lives in detention, 3 people were killed in protests and 2 people were killed by government forces outside of protests. 1 person is at risk of the execution of a death sentence and 1 person has been sentenced to death. The median age in this list is 33 years; the youngest was 15 years old and the oldest 88. 2 people were under 18 years of age, and there are 16 women in this list whose source mentioned that they were women.
Mashhad with 24 names is the most frequent city, followed by Zahedan with 14, Karaj with 13, Isfahan with 10 and Tehran with 6 names. Bandar Abbas and Shiraz have 4 names each, and Taybad, Yazd and Qazvin 3 names each. The year 1389 with 21 names is the heaviest year, and the reason is mostly a single day: 19 Mordad 1389, on which 16 citizens of Afghanistan were executed. The years 1401 with 14 names, 1404 with 12 names and 1402 with 11 names are also heavy years. The days 26 Farvardin 1393, 16 Esfand 1393, 26 Mordad 1394 and 4 Mordad 1401 have 3 names each.
Some lives
Jannat Mir was an adolescent when he was executed. The source says he “had studied at school up to the ninth grade” and had come to Iran in search of work. His brother gave his age as 15 years. He was hanged on 26 Farvardin 1393 in Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan, and the agents did not even allow his brother to take a photograph of his body to show to the family. Vazir Ahmad Amrdin, 22 years old, according to the source “had been in prison since the age of 16”; he was executed on 26 Mordad 1394 together with 5 others in Bandar Abbas, and his brother is also among those executed.
Ehsanollah Ehsani, 20 years old, of the Hazara people, was a welder, a construction worker and a football player, and had just opened a teahouse with an Iranian friend. He lost his life in Ordibehesht 1395 after torture in detention. These words of his remain: “Dad, come here, they are beating me and telling me to take the blame for these things.” Alireza Rezaei, 24 years old, had worked at the National Radio and Television of Afghanistan as a sound recordist and assistant director; he died on 29 Shahrivar 1394 in a border detention centre, and his sister saw bruises on his chest while washing his body.
Nesar Mohammad Kamrani, father of four children, made a living buying and selling plastic and dry bread. Those close to him said: “He is a simple worker and we have never seen any wrongdoing from him.” He was executed on 1 Esfand 1389 in Isfahan, and the family was not permitted to take his body to Afghanistan. Abdolrahim Seddighi, a 26-year-old herdsman who was born to an Afghan father and an Iranian mother in a camp near Birjand, was executed on 20 Ordibehesht 1388, and his body was buried in the village of Jarg in Farah.
About this list
The list of citizens of Afghanistan is not complete. The real number is higher; the names of many migrants who were executed or killed in Iran were never published, and we list only a name for which we have a source. Most of these names come from the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center with 81 cases; followed by the Iran Human Rights Society with 34, Haalvsh with 20, the Center for Human Rights in Iran with 14 and the Kurdistan Human Rights Network with 11 cases. Every name has at least one source, but some rest on only one source. For 29 people a description of their life is available. If you knew one of these 124 people, in Iran or in Afghanistan, send us your memory or correction.