Negar Mojtahedi 

Iran International:

Weeks after Iran’s bloody January crackdown, intimate tragedies are emerging from the silence, among them the story of a young auto mechanic and his dog.

Ali Karami, 26, who was shot and killed by Iran’s security forces on January 8, had one wish: “If I die before my dog,” he said, “let her see my lifeless body.”

He said it in a video posted to Instagram in October 2024, narrating as he played tug-of-war with his dog, Ariel—laughing, absorbed in an ordinary moment of life.

After his death, the video spread widely across Iranian social media, capturing the public imagination as viewers returned to his words with disbelief.

Karami believed dogs understand death, and that without seeing him, she might think he had simply abandoned her.

He may have contemplated the possibility of dying young, but not like this—not shot in the street, his private reflection transformed into a national elegy.

Karami was an auto repair mechanic and a devoted dog lover who rescued stray animals. Originally from Kermanshah Province, in the country’s Kurdish region, he later moved to Tehran for school and work.

His Instagram account, @alikaramiservis, offers a window into his daily life—his pride in his craft, his affection for dogs, and his love of nature and music, including the songs of Dariush Eghbali.

It is also a record of one of the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets demanding freedom and were met with bullets.

Karami was reportedly trying to protect an elderly woman when he was shot and killed.

In many of his photos, Ariel—the dog he referred to as his daughter—is never far from his side. They play ball, cook, or simply share quiet time at the repair shop: fragments of an unremarkable, joyful life.

“She understands death,” Karami says in the October video. “If she does not see my lifeless body, she will think I abandoned her and will keep waiting for me to come back.”

“That’s a friendship without limits,” he adds. “Pure loyalty.”

Karami’s final post, dated December 30, shows him proudly displaying his work: a car he had restored at Sehand Car Clinic in Tehran.

From February 8 onward, the account appears to have been run by family members or friends. That day, they posted a tribute video showing Karami dancing, exercising, and spending time with Ariel. They also reposted the October video—his voice now echoing with an unintended prophecy.

This time, there was an ending.

The final images show Ariel lying at Karami’s gravesite.

Just as he had asked.

In the most tragic way, a fate he once spoke of—unknowingly—was fulfilled.