Aban 1398

This page keeps the memory of 658 people who gave their lives in Aban 1398; from 1 Aban 1398 to 28 Aban 1398. Most of them, 633 people, were killed in protests that the sources call protests against the rise in the price of petrol. 15 people were executed in this same month, 7 people were killed by government forces outside the protests, one person lost their life in custody, one person was assassinated outside Iran and one person is at risk of execution.

Four days

Most of those killed this month gave their lives on a few consecutive days: 118 people on 25 Aban 1398, 92 people on 26 Aban 1398 and 30 people on 27 Aban 1398. For many others the sources have recorded only the month, not the day. Before that, 6 names are recorded on 21 Aban 1398 and 3 names on 14 Aban 1398.

Those killed in Aban lost their lives in many cities. Kermanshah with 60 names, Ahvaz with 57, Mahshahr with 56 and Shiraz with 53 have the highest numbers; after them come Tehran with 39, Karaj with 38, Isfahan with 33, Shahriar with 26, Javanrud with 21, Robat Karim with 20, and Malard and Fardis with 16 names each. Among the provinces, Khuzestan with 173 names and Tehran with 163 names are in the lead, followed by Kermanshah with 82, Alborz with 67, Fars with 55 and Isfahan with 49.

The ages range from 2 to 66 years, and the median is 27 years. 37 of the Javid-Nam (“everlasting names”), those who lost their lives, this month were under 18, and the sources have written of 5 people that they were women.

The adolescents of Aban

Nikta Esfandani, 14 years old, the second child of a family of four, acted in theatre and had just begun learning the guitar. She was hit in the head by pellets in the Sattarkhan neighbourhood of Tehran, but the forensic medicine office wrote the cause of her death as “food and drug poisoning.” Those close to her have said: “Nikta went out of the house to visit a friend and never came back.” Mohammad Dastankhah, 15 years old, a student at the Ferdowsi school in Shiraz who built boats and helicopters with batteries, was hit by a bullet in the heart in front of the Basij base in Sadra.

Mothers and fathers

Mina Sheikhi, 50 years old, mother of 4 sons and 2 daughters, was killed by three bullets in the Khalij-e Fars neighbourhood of Tehran; one of those close to her has said: “Her poor home was a place of comfort for everyone.” Ameneh Shahbazifard, 34 years old, mother of three children, took off her shawl on 26 Aban 1398 in Malard to bind the wound of a young man, and at that very moment was shot from behind. Abdollah Ghavimi, 46 years old, had gone to Sadra to bring his children home from school.

Young people

Borhan Mansournia, 28 years old, a veterinarian who wanted to build a clinic in Marivan, died in the ICU on 27 Aban. Pouya Bakhtiari, 27 years old, an electrical engineer who “loved nature and had become a vegetarian,” was killed in Mehrshahr in Karaj. Farzad Ansarifar, 27 years old, a tiler from Behbahan, lost his life from a bullet to the back of the head. In this same month, Masoud Molavi Vardanjani, 33 years old, who held master's degrees in civil engineering and computer science and ran a page called “Black Box” in Turkey, was killed in Turkey on 23 Aban 1398 by 11 bullets; he had said: “If my life were not in danger, I would not have wanted to leave this place.” Mohammad Rasoul Choulaki, 23 years old, the father of a two-year-old child, was executed in Ilam.

Sources and incompleteness

658 names are not all of the Javid-Nam in Aban 1398; the real number is higher, and many names have not yet been published. We record only names that have a source. The main sources are Persian Wikipedia with 544 cases, Amnesty International with 255, IranWire with 243, Radio Zamaneh with 122, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center with 76, Iran Kargar with 47, the Campaign for the Defence of Political and Civil Prisoners with 39, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network with 28, Radio Farda with 23 and the Begoonah news network with 20 cases. If you knew one of those killed in Aban, send us your memory or correction.