Mehdi Hazrati

Mehdi Hazrati was eighteen and lived in Khorramdasht, Karaj, in Alborz province. Born on 11 Shahrivar 1383 (2 September 2004), he had recently turned eighteen. He worked various jobs, loved football and Colombia's national team, and listened to Persian rap. A source close to the family told BBC Persian that after Mahsa (Zhina) Amini's death he protested for about forty-three days, often traveling from Karaj to Tehran, and showed friends photos of Nika Shakarami saying they had to finish the work. On 12 Aban 1401 (3 November 2022), during the fortieth-day mourning for Hadith Najafi in Karaj, he was shot near his neighborhood after returning with the crowd. Videos show him falling after a bullet hit his forehead, bleeding heavily while wearing white sneakers, blue jeans, and a black shirt, then armed officers surrounding his body and loading it onto a white pickup. The death certificate recorded bullet trauma. Authorities buried him alone in Behesht-e Ali cemetery near Eshtehard without telling the family; relatives learned of the death from an acquaintance. Regime media blamed opposition agents; the family and independent sources attribute the shooting to security forces. At his own fortieth-day ceremony, officers confined the family at home. His mother had died four years earlier. He cared about child laborers and told friends he wanted to go somewhere where, by law, love is not a crime.