Sunni Muslims

This page keeps the memory of Sunni Muslims who were killed or executed, or who are at risk of execution. This list contains 217 names, from 20 Ordibehesht 1388 to 12 Azar 1404. One point must be said from the start: a person appears on this page when their source has explicitly said that they were Sunni. Religion is not mentioned in most reports of executions and killings, so there are undoubtedly many other Sunni Muslims in our overall list who are not seen on this page. This page is based on what the sources have said, not on our guesswork.

Fates and days

Of these 217 people, 113 were executed. 48 people were killed in protests, 22 people were killed by government forces outside of protests, 3 people were killed by government forces and 3 people lost their lives in detention. 24 people were assassinated outside Iran. The death sentence of 2 people has been upheld, 1 person has been sentenced to death and 1 person is at risk of the execution of a death sentence. 14 people in this list were under 18 years of age; children, the youngest of whom, according to the data, was 8 years old. There are also 6 women in this list.

The year 1401 with 53 names is the heaviest year, and most of it goes back to a single day: 8 Mehr 1401 with 30 names. Another day that weighs heavily in this list is 12 Mordad 1395 with 23 names, and for this reason the year 1395 with 34 names is the second year with the most names. The years 1399 with 23 names and 1392 with 16 names are also heavy. Zahedan with 70 names is the most frequent city, followed by Karaj with 41, Tehran with 11 and Sanandaj with 10 names. Sistan and Baluchestan with 87 names and Alborz with 34 names are at the top of the provinces, followed by Tehran, Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan. The median age is 31 years and the oldest person was 64 years old.

Some lives

Mahsa (Jina) Amini was 22 years old and had been admitted in 1401 to study microbiology at Urmia University. Those close to her said: “She was so interested in medicine that she had bought all the medical equipment.” She was arrested by the morality police on 22 Shahrivar 1401 in Tehran and lost her life on 25 Shahrivar. Her father said: “Her place will never be filled for me. I am her father.”

Zanyar Allahmoradi, 25 years old, a worker from Sanandaj and a student of an associate degree in electrical engineering, was shot dead in Aban 1401 in the protests in Sanandaj. This sentence from those close to him remains: “Zanyar never wanted anyone to get hurt. He always went forward himself so that others would stay safe.” His family was told that they would have to pay 400 million tomans to get his body back.

Azad Shahabi, 38 years old, a sheikh of a khanqah (Sufi lodge) in Saqqez and father of two children, was killed on 28 Tir 1403 by shots from unknown persons. The source says that, without anyone knowing, he “was helping the families of those who lost their lives in the protests in Kurdistan.” Two Sunni men, Zanyar Moradi, 30 years old, and Loghman Moradi, 35 years old, were hanged together in Evin on the morning of 17 Shahrivar 1397. Loghman was a kolbar (cross-border porter) and a crane driver, and his fellow prisoners regarded him “like a member of their own family.” Zanyar's burial place was not told to his family until the fortieth day.

About this list

The list of Sunni Muslims is not complete. The real number is higher and the names of many were never published; we list only a name that has a source, and we place someone on this page only when the source has stated their religion. The largest share of these 217 names comes from the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center with 200 cases; followed by the Iran Human Rights Society with 87, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network with 80 and Persian Wikipedia with 48 cases. Every name has at least one source, but some rest on only one report. For 124 people a description of their life is available. If you knew one of these Sunni Muslims, or if their religion or other details appear incorrectly here, share your memory or correction with us.