By AIDA GHAJAR

IranWire

Leila Shokri, a 43-year-old Kurdish woman from Hamedan and the mother of three daughters, was killed on Friday, January 9, during protests in Qarchak.

She was buried on Monday, January 12, at Behesht-e Fatemeh cemetery in the city.

Shokri was the mother of three girls aged 16, 11, and two. According to eyewitnesses, Islamic Republic security forces shot her in the head from a rooftop while protests were underway in Qarchak.

She collapsed beside a tree and died at the scene.

Nearly 20 days after her death, a video of Shokri began circulating on social media. In the footage, she is seen singing a Kurdish song about the cruelty of the times, laughing, dancing, and alive.

The video then cuts abruptly to images of blood pooled on the ground beneath the tree where she was shot.

Shokri now remains only in photographs and memories: her body wrapped in a black shroud at the Kahrizak forensic center, a bullet wound visible in her head.

She leaves behind three underage daughters.

Shokri was killed in the Marlik area of Qarchak. Witnesses said she was shot from the rooftop of the Sar-Zamin Soukhari (“Fried Land”) building and the Berelian dental clinic.

Eyewitnesses described the shooter as a sniper who deliberately targeted her head, causing her to collapse instantly.

Shokri was a homemaker.

On Thursday, January 8, amid the internet blackout and ongoing protests, she had traveled to another city to visit relatives.

After hearing that demonstrations had begun in Qarchak, she returned, saying she did not want “the people’s children” to be left alone in the streets.

Relatives said she was deeply distressed, repeatedly asking, “How many young people have been killed?” and “How many mothers are mourning now?” Questions that, they said, still have no answers as the country grapples with thousands killed, injured, or detained in the January protests.

By Friday, January 9, Qarchak was heavily patrolled by security forces.

Witnesses said Shokri was visibly upset and crying. That evening, as she stood near a tree in the Marlik area, worried about locating her family members in the crowd, snipers shot her in the head.

After she collapsed, a woman in the crowd rushed her to Sattari Hospital in her private car.

A few hours later, the family was informed of her death and told to report to the Kahrizak forensic center the following morning.

Family members went to Kahrizak to identify her body.

Like many other families, they were forced to open shrouds one by one, calling out her name until they found her. Leila Shokri was buried three days later, in Qarchak.