Nika Shakarami, the 16-year-old Iranian among the symbolic faces of the sacrifice of young women in the fight against the Islamic Republic, was sexually assaulted before being killed by three men from the Revolutionary Guards, according to what is contained in an official document revealed by the BBC.
Nika had disappeared in Tehran, while taking part in one of the anti-regime demonstrations that broke out in 2022 after the death in custody of the moral police of the young Kurdish girl Mahsa Amini. The teenager's body was found nine days later and authorities said Nika had killed herself. The questions for clarification submitted by the BBC to the Iranian government and the Revolutionary Guards received no response.
Classified as “highly confidential”, the report summarizes a hearing on Nika's case held by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG): it includes the names of his killers and the superiors who tried to cover up the incident.
The document also contains details of what happened in the back of an undercover van, where security forces had detained Nika: one of the men molested her while sitting on her; although she was handcuffed and immobilized, the girl reacted, kicking and swearing and this prompted the Pasdaran to beat her with truncheons. There are numerous official but fake Iranian documents in circulation, which is why the BBC spent months verifying every detail with multiple sources.
Nika's family found her body in a morgue more than a week after her disappearance, but Iranian authorities had denied the death was linked to the demonstrations and, after conducting their own investigation, said she had committed suicide. Shortly before disappearing, she Nika had been filmed on the evening of September 20 near Laleh Park, in central Tehran, standing on a dumpster while she set fire to her hijab, mandatory for women in Iran. Others around her chanted “death to the dictator”, referring to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.