Mohammadreza Ferdosi

Mohammadreza (Hesam) Ferdosi (Persian: محمدرضا فردوسی; also written Ferdowsi) was a 24-year-old from Qarchak (قرچک), near Varamin in Tehran province. BBC Persian described him as a young man from a middle-income family who was self-employed and lived with his family. He had taken part in religious mourning gatherings (heyat and rowzeh), but once the protests began he posted against the Islamic Republic on Instagram, and in one post he wrote that he had been "harassed and questioned by security forces". His last Instagram post read: "To better days. My people, I love you."

On 13 Aban 1401 (4 November 2022), near the Qarchak Friday mosque and in front of dozens of police and special-unit officers, he set himself on fire while chanting against the Islamic Republic; the Shahidan-e Ghiyam memorial blog records that he chanted "Death to Khamenei". An eyewitness who sent images to BBC Persian said he set himself alight in front of the security forces after chanting against the government, and the images show officers beating him after the fire was put out. Radio Farda likewise reported, on the basis of published videos, that officers beat him instead of taking him straight to hospital.

He suffered burns over 70 percent of his body and was treated at Motahari Hospital in Tehran. A source told BBC Persian that from the day he was burned his family were under the control of security forces, and there were fears they would be pressured into giving a different account. He died of his injuries on 17 Aban 1401 (8 November 2022). Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC, published CCTV images and claimed that he had meant to throw a Molotov cocktail at Basij members and that it caught fire inside a car; the eyewitness account and independent reporting describe a protest self-immolation. Persian Wikipedia notes that social media users compared his act with the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia in 2010.

HRANA's report on the first 82 days of the protests lists Mohammad Reza Ferdowsi, 24, Qarchak, 8 November 2022, with self-immolation as the cause of death. On Friday 25 Azar 1401 (16 December 2022), according to Radio Farda, people gathered at his grave at the Imamzadeh Ebrahim shrine in Qarchak, Varamin, for his fortieth-day memorial despite pressure from security forces, on the same day as the fortieth-day ceremonies for Ali Roozbehani in Tehran and Nima Nouri in Karaj. Persian Wikipedia gives his burial place as Valiabad, Qarchak. Some tallies list 14 Aban as the date of the burning; dedicated sources put it on the 13th and his death on the 17th.