Cartoon by Buna Alkhas

Revealing names and faces of the victims of Iran's protest crackdown

BBC News Persian has verified the identities of more than 200 of the thousands of people killed during Iran's brutal crackdown on the recent widespread protests.

The project has scoured social media, verified online footage and used eyewitness accounts to build up a chronicle of how and when the protesters were killed, as well as some details about their lives.

Many of these accounts were provided to the BBC by sources close to the victims and were cross-checked against data from human rights organisations.

Since the unrest began in late December, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has confirmed the deaths of 6,872 protesters, including more than 150 children.

'Side by side'

Iranian authorities acknowledge that at least 3,000 people were killed, but claim some were members of the security forces.

Pictures of and information about victims identified by BBC News Persian can be seen in this page on the BBC News Persian site (text in Persian).

Among those killed were Mansoureh Heydari and her husband, Behrouz Mansouri. A family friend told BBC News Persian that the couple had joined the protests in Bushehr, in south-west Iran, when both were shot dead by security forces on 8 January.

The security forces had opened fire on protesters gathered outside a mosque, they said. Behrouz was struck in the head and fatally wounded.

Mansoureh, who had initially been running away, returned to her husband but was later shot as well.

The couple died side by side in the street, leaving behind two children aged eight and 10. Their bodies were returned by security forces four days later and they were buried next to each other.

A close relative said the family were "proud" that the couple had "died for their homeland" but added that they now live in fear under intense security pressure.

'Dad, I'm burning'

Many of the faces featured in the project are young men and women, mostly in their late teens to early 30s.

One 17-year-old art student, Ghazal Damarcheli, was shot outside her family home in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, on 9 January.

A source close to the family told BBC News Persian that even after her death, the family faced pressure, as security forces refused to allow them to bury her nearby. Her remains were instead interred in a remote cemetery, far from the family home.

That same night, 28-year-old biotechnology student Negin Ghadimi was also killed.

Despite her father's pleas for her to stay at home, she joined protesters on the streets of Tonekabon, about 200km (125 miles) north of Tehran.
Security forces opened fire on the crowd, and she was hit in the side, a source close to the family said. She fell into her father's arms and told him as she lay dying: "Dad, I'm burning."

Ongoing project

The findings for this project were produced through multiple steps and interviews with sources inside Iran, many of whose names cannot be disclosed for safety reasons.

After examining social media accounts and online activity to establish each person's identity and involvement in the protests, the BBC team cross-checked the circumstances around their deaths against open-source data from inside Iran.

Analysing footage of funerals and images of memorials provided key details, such as timing, location and circumstances of death.

Individuals were also identified in footage from morgues, including the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre, to where many bodies from Tehran and surrounding areas were transferred.

The work became especially difficult at the height of the protests on 8 January, when Iran's government cut off internet, mobile phone and landline access for nearly three weeks.

But by piecing together information from inside the country via Starlink, the satellite network owned by Elon Musk, and relying on eyewitness accounts from Iranians who travelled to the borders to pick up neighbouring signals, BBC News Persian was able to start verifying the reports of protesters' deaths.

The BBC Visual Journalism team has created an interactive "face wall" for the BBC News Persian website, where readers can explore the profiles of victims identified through the research by clicking on each photograph.

The project is ongoing, and the team aims to add further names and stories as verification continues.