You're not even allowed to mourn

In Iran, hundreds of families are mourning relatives who died violently during protests. A report now shows how the regime is taking action even against grief.

It has been almost a year since the Kurd Jina Mahsa Amini im Iran died after so-called moral guardians arrested her. Since then, the Islamic Republic has not calmed down: for months, people took to the streets in droves to fight against the regime’s oppression and for their freedom. Although the protests have become smaller, the will of the population to revolutionize the country still seems unbroken.

However, many Iranians are paying a high price for this: thousands of them have been illegally detained since the protests began, Hundreds have been sentenced to death in illegal sham trials. Other demonstrators have already paid with their lives – for example because so-called security forces killed them during protests.

Harassment and intimidation of families

However, a new report by the human rights organization Amnesty International makes it clear that the deaths of the protesters do not seem to be enough for the corrupt regime. The relatives of the deceased are also targeted by the authorities. The human rights activists documented the fate of 36 families who are said to have become victims of human rights violations in the past few months. The allegations are backed up with photos and statements by those affected – and weigh heavily.

The regime is said to harass and intimidate many families to suppress calls for justice. So-called security forces arbitrarily arrest relatives of those killed, threaten them, torture them in custody, disrupt peaceful gatherings in cemeteries or destroy graves. A number of examples from the report show the dramatic extent.

Destroyed Amini’s tomb

The best-known case is that of Jina Mahsa Amini’s family itself. The relatives repeatedly complain, among other things, about the destruction of the young woman’s resting place. The family is also under constant surveillance by the authorities because they publicly criticized the regime for killing the Kurd, who allegedly violated the strict dress code in Iran at the time.

But many other families are also affected, such as that of 32-year-old Abdolsalam Ghader Golvan. According to human rights activists, he was also killed in September 2022 by the regime’s security forces during protests in West Azerbaijan province. In July of this year, the authorities are said to have raided Abdolsalam’s brother in the middle of the night – and arrested him too.

The so-called security forces are said to have shaved off his beard out of humiliation and brutally beat him in custody. The next morning they are said to have taken him to his brother’s grave and released him. Soleiman Ghader Golvan suffered serious injuries and was hospitalized. Pictures also show a badly damaged resting place.

Public criticism of the regime

The authorities primarily target families who, after relatives have been killed, publicly denounce the regime and show solidarity with the protest movement. According to Amnesty International’s human rights activists, Majid Kazemi’s relatives were also threatened. The 30-year-old was executed in May 2023 after being sentenced to death in a sham trial.

According to his cousin Mahammah Hashemi, the authorities did everything they could to prevent memorial services for the executed man and to silence relatives who criticize the regime for the unlawful execution of the sentence.

So is Majid Kazemi’s brother Hossein immediately after the execution be called to the morgue to identify the body. At this point he is said not to have known about his brother’s death. Officials reportedly took him to the cemetery, where they dumped Majid Kazemi’s body in a grave that wasn’t even big enough for the man. Then they are said to have arrested Hossein.

Security forces scoff at funeral services

The authorities denied the family a burial ceremony and only allowed them to say goodbye an hour before the grave – in the presence of numerous security forces, who are said to have mocked the grief of the relatives and took pictures of the mourners. Just days later, after the family attempted to hold a memorial service, another brother and sister of the executed man were arrested, human rights activists said.

Cousin Mohammad Hashemi reported: «In addition to the pain of the family caused by the terrible crime [der Hinrichtung] was caused, the authorities put a lot of pressure on the family.” The relatives are said to have been forbidden to hold a funeral service in their own home.

The woman was released after a few days, and the two brothers are said to have been held captive in an unknown location for a month without having contact with the family. Also in this case Amnesty International shows photos of the devastated grave of Majid Kazemi.

«The authorities killed my innocent son»

The families’ pain is also reflected in a photo of a woman sitting and crying at the grave of her 16-year-old son. So-called security forces killed Artin Rahmani during protests in Izeh in November 2022. At the time, his mother mourned publicly – and denounced the regime’s measures: “The authorities of the Islamic Republic killed my innocent son, imprisoned my brother and my relatives and summoned me to the public prosecutor’s office for the crime of seeking justice for the killing of my child to shut me up.”

Amnesty International further quoted the woman in the report: “Citizens in Iran have no right to protest and all efforts for freedom are being suppressed with great violence. What freedom of speech is that, as a grieving mother, I don’t have the right to cry out about my grief for my teenage son?”

“The cruelty of the Iranian authorities knows no bounds”

“The cruelty of the Iranian authorities knows no bounds,” summarizes Diana Eltahawy, deputy director for the Region Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, the situation together. “They try in cold blood to cover up their crimes, thereby increasing the suffering and pain of the families involved, stifling their demands for truth, justice and reparation, and even preventing them from planting flowers on the graves of those killed. »

In the report, Eltahawy called on the international community to protect the families of those killed and to urge the Iranian authorities to “release all those who are being held solely for speaking out for truth and justice for those killed.” .

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