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Reyhaneh Yousefi: Theater Actress Killed by Gunfire in Tehran

IranWire: According to information provided to IranWire, Reyhaneh Yousefi, a 28-year-old theater actress, was shot and killed on Friday evening, January 9, during protests in Tehran’s Naziabad neighborhood by Islamic Republic forces.

Naziabad is a well-known neighborhood in south Tehran, long seen as a traditional, working-class area with strong community ties. Because the government has historically relied on support from south Tehran, the scale of protests and the use of lethal force in this district point to a deep and widespread shift in public sentiment against the regime.

According to people close to Reyhaneh, government agents pressured her family to say she had died in a "car accident."

This is a common tactic used by Iranian intelligence agencies to reshape the narrative. By forcing families to attribute a death to an accident, a medical emergency, or suicide, the state effectively erases the case from the official count of those killed by security forces.

Reyhaneh Yousefi’s body was buried in secret after her family came under security pressure from Islamic Republic forces.

Such burials often take place late at night or in remote locations, with only a small number of close family members allowed to attend. Security forces typically supervise the process to ensure no photographs are taken and no anti-government slogans are raised, preventing the funeral from turning into a public protest - a common form of expression in Iranian culture.