Young Lives Lost: The Students, Athletes, and Artists Killed in Iran’s Protest Crackdown

Rights groups confirm hundreds killed, many shot at close range, including a fashion designer, a teenage footballer, and a champion bodybuilder.

Amid a widening crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran, human rights organizations are piecing together the identities of hundreds of victims—many of them young people shot dead by security forces.

According to Iran Human Rights (IHR), at least 648 protesters have been confirmed killed, including nine minors and six women. The Norway-based group warns the true toll could reach into the thousands.

“The killings are intense all over the country where there have been protests,” said IHR director Mamood Amiry Moghaddam, noting most victims were young men. Iranian officials blame “rioters” and foreign enemies for violence that has also claimed dozens of security force members.

Behind the numbers are individual stories of promise cut short:

Rubina Aminian, 23, was a fashion student at Tehran’s prestigious Shariati College, drawing design inspiration from Iran’s Kurdish and Baluch communities. She was shot in the head from behind on January 8 after joining demonstrations. Her family, retrieving her body from a morgue filled with casualties, was forced to bury her by a roadside without ceremony.

Erfan Faraji, 18, was killed just a week after his birthday. His body was identified in the Kahrizak morgue—where images of piled body bags drew global outcry—and quietly buried by his family.

Rebin Moradi, 17, was a rising football talent in Tehran’s youth premier league, playing for Saipa Club. The Kurdish teen was shot dead on January 9. His family has been unable to reclaim his body.

Mehdi Zatparvar, 39, a former national bodybuilding champion and sports physiologist from Rasht, was also shot and killed during the protests.

These cases, verified by groups including IHR and Hengaw, highlight the human cost of the unrest that erupted over economic grievances but has since intensified under a severe state response. Families describe being denied mourning rites and pressured into silent burials, as the scale of loss continues to emerge.