Jan 7
Mohammad Khazri
We were a family of six. Eighteen years ago, we lost our father. There were two sisters, two brothers, and our mother. At the time, my younger sister was pregnant when our father passed away. We had no support from our father's side of the family. Even those who were there disappeared after his death and never looked back. We grew up through countless hardships, and our mother devoted her entire life to raising us. Four or five years ago, we moved to Bumehen so we could find work. By then we had grown up and wanted to support our mother. Life had finally become a little more stable, and we were managing to get by. From that time on, Mohammad worked tirelessly. He even worked on Fridays. On the 18th, he had been at work all day. At around 8:00 p.m., he called and said, "I'm on my way home." But he never came back. He had planned to buy a car before Nowruz, and after the holidays he wanted to propose to his girlfriend. He never got that chance. Since then, my mother has been in very poor health. She can barely visit Mohammad's grave, because every time she returns, the grief overwhelms her so deeply that she is unable to recover for months.
- Age
- 21
- City
- Ashkhaneh
- Date
- 2026-01-08
- All statuses
- Family report
Life story
We were a family of six. Eighteen years ago, we lost our father. There were two sisters, two brothers, and our mother. At the time, my younger sister was pregnant when our father passed away. We had no support from our father's side of the family. Even those who were there disappeared after his death and never looked back. We grew up through countless hardships, and our mother devoted her entire life to raising us. Four or five years ago, we moved to Bumehen so we could find work. By then we had grown up and wanted to support our mother. Life had finally become a little more stable, and we were managing to get by. From that time on, Mohammad worked tirelessly. He even worked on Fridays. On the 18th, he had been at work all day. At around 8:00 p.m., he called and said, "I'm on my way home." But he never came back. He had planned to buy a car before Nowruz, and after the holidays he wanted to propose to his girlfriend. He never got that chance. Since then, my mother has been in very poor health. She can barely visit Mohammad's grave, because every time she returns, the grief overwhelms her so deeply that she is unable to recover for months.
Incident summary
On the night of 18 Dey, at around 8:00 p.m., he finished work and called to say, "I'm on my way home." After that, his phone stopped working, and we never heard from him again. We could hear gunfire that night and were terrified, but we kept telling ourselves he would come home, perhaps he had gone to see his friends. At around 1:00 a.m., we went outside and saw people washing blood from the streets. We went to the police station and then to Alghadir Hospital in Bumehen. There, they showed us a photograph of him while he was unconscious, but they would not tell us whether he was alive or dead. The next day, we searched every detention center in the area. We searched Kahrezak for a week, among thousands of bodies. After one week, we finally found him. He was buried on 25 Dey, the day that would have been his birthday. He had been struck from behind by two live bullets—one pierced his heart and the other his kidney. We still do not know whether he was simply riding home on his motorcycle or whether he saw people being shot and went toward the protests. No one gave us any answers. They only told us to sign papers so they could officially declare him a "martyr." They repeatedly offered us increasing amounts of money, but our mother refused. Even though she is in very poor health, we do not want money stained with the blood of my brother and so many other young people. That night, they fired the bullets that killed my brother, but they destroyed our entire family. The four of us who remain have not truly lived since then—we only continue to breathe.
Memorial narrative
My brother was a hero. For some time, he always wore a Lion and Sun pendant around his neck. People warned him to take it off when he went outside, but he would say, "I'm not afraid. I won't take it off." You can see it around his neck in every photo of him. He was so devoted to his work that we hardly have any photographs of him. He used to say, "There are two brothers in our family. One of us has to be willing to give his life. If they kill us, then let them. We have to go. We're young, and all we do is work. If our country becomes free, at least the rest of our family will be able to live a better life." He thought those two nights would bring freedom. He never imagined they would show no mercy to anyone.