Azar 1401

This page keeps the memory of 174 people who gave their lives in Azar 1401 or whose fate was decided in this month; from 1 Azar 1401 to 30 Azar 1401. Azar 1401 is a month in which both the street and the prison were scenes of grief: 59 people were killed in protests and 70 people were executed. 26 people lost their lives in custody; a striking number for one month. One person was killed outside the protests, one person died in suspicious circumstances and one person after release from custody. 9 people are at risk of execution and 7 people have been sentenced to death.

Days and cities

The day with the most names this month is 21 Azar 1401, with 16 names; after it come 13 Azar 1401 with 14, 3 Azar 1401 with 12, 26 Azar 1401 with 9 and 9 Azar 1401 with 8 names. Zahedan with 15 names, Tehran with 14, Karaj with 11, Shiraz with 8, Mashhad and Qazvin with 6 each, and Bukan and Rasht with 5 names each have the highest numbers. Among the provinces, Sistan and Baluchestan is in the lead with 23 names.

The ages range from 16 to 88 years, and the median is 31 years. 4 people were under 18, and the sources have written of 36 people that they were women.

The first executions of the protests

Mohsen Shekari, 23 years old, was a cook and had lived alone since the age of sixteen; he “wanted to open a café” and had become curious about Dante's Divine Comedy. According to the source, “he was the first person executed in the nationwide protests of 1401,” and he was hanged on 17 Azar 1401; his family were not informed of his execution. Majidreza Rahnavard Paeindeh, 23 years old, a worker at a fruit shop in Mashhad, was executed in public with a crane four days later, on 21 Azar 1401. His family had seen him the night before, without knowing what would happen the next day. The charges against these two young men are the court's account, not proof of guilt.

Aida Rostami

Aida Rostami, 36 years old, according to the source “a people's doctor,” was a general practitioner in one of the hospitals of Tehran. She had lost her father at the age of eleven. The source writes that she “during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests secretly treated the wounded in their homes” and had earlier helped the earthquake victims of Kermanshah. While helping the wounded she was identified and abducted, and she lost her life in custody on 21 Azar 1401. Her body was handed over with an injured face and hand, and the police station wrote the cause of death as “an accident.” Her family wrote for her: “Dear Aida, your choice was light.”

Others

Atefeh Naami, 37 years old, an accountant and architecture student who was preparing for her wedding, was found dead in her home on 5 Azar 1401 after eight days of being missing. Sepehr Azami, 24 years old, a hairdresser who had just opened his shop in Kamalshahr in Karaj and looked after a dog named “Teddy,” was killed on 15 Azar. Ehsan Ghasemifar, 32 years old, an athlete, was killed in Karaj, and the family were put under pressure to say the cause of death was “a heart attack.” Ribaz Salehivand, 21 years old, lost his life on the first day of this month in Mahabad.

Sources and incompleteness

174 names are not all of the Javid-Nam (“everlasting names”), those who lost their lives, in Azar 1401; the real number is higher, and our list contains only names that have a source. The main sources are the Iran Human Rights Society with 145 cases, iranhrs.org with 69, HRANA with 38, Haalvsh with 35, Persian Wikipedia with 28, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (English-language) with 16, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center with 14, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network with 12 and Independent Persian with 2 cases. If you knew Aida, Mohsen, Majidreza or another of the Javid-Nam in Azar 1401, send us your memory or correction.