On December 28th of 2025, protests started in Iran’s capital in response to soaring prices and a collapsing economy. They swiftly fanned across the country and morphed into a mass movement against Iran’s theocratic government led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Over three weeks later and thousands are reported dead, the result of a violent crackdown on protestors by the authorities. The majority of those murdered are thought to be younger than 30, a horrifying but perhaps unsurprising statistic in a country whose population skews young due to the baby boom that followed the 1979 revolution.
A government imposed internet blackout in the country means information about the victims is scarce, but some names have emerged: Akram Pirgazi, 40, the first woman reported to have been killed in the protests and a mother of two; Rebin Moradi, 17, a promising footballer and Robina Aminian, a 23-year-old studying fashion design at university in Tehran. Two weeks ago, after finishing class for the day, she joined an anti-regime rally. A human rights group says that she was shot in the head from close range shortly after. “She was thirsty for freedom, thirsty for women’s rights, her rights,” Aminian’s uncle told CNN in the wake of his niece’s murder.
