The human rights activists’ news agency (Hrana) reports that 538 people have been killed in protests in Iran. Among these, 490 protesters and 48 members of the Iranian security forces. Around 10,000 arrests were also made. Rubina Aminian, 23, a textile and fashion design student at Shariati College in Tehran, was identified among the victims cited by NGOs in the protests in Iran. This was reported by the NGO Iran Human Rights, reporting that it had obtained details on the killing of this young student.
According to the NGO, the 23-year-old was killed on the evening of Thursday 8 January, after leaving college and taking part in protests. Sources close to Rubina’s family told Iran Human Rights that the young Kurdish woman from Marivan was shot from behind at close range, with the bullet hitting her head.
After learning of her death, Rubina Aminian’s family members traveled from Kermanshah, where they live, to Tehran to identify her body. Sources close to the Aminian family told Iran Human Rights that «the family was taken to a place near the university where they found the bodies of hundreds of young people killed during the protests. Most of the victims were young people between 18 and 22 years old, killed at close range with shots to the head and neck by government forces. Initially the family was not allowed to identify Rubina’s body and later they were not allowed to take it away.”
According to reports, the sources report that in the end “Rubina’s family managed to recover her body and return to Kermanshah”, but, upon their arrival, “they discovered that intelligence forces had surrounded their house and that they had not been allowed to bury her”.
Tear gas at the cemetery
In Iran you can’t even mourn your dead in peace, victims of the regime’s repression against street demonstrations. According to information received by Iran International, Iranian security forces fired tear gas and used air guns against families attending funeral ceremonies in Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra cemetery for several protesters killed in recent nights.
According to informed sources, to discourage people from joining the protests, the Iranian authorities are asking for around 6 thousand dollars for the release of the bodies to the relatives of the victims of the clashes.