Final posts before gunfire: accounts that turned into digital memorials

Sohrabi underwent surgery to remove his eye after being transferred to hospital and subsequently fell into a coma. His family later donated his organs.

Videos circulating on social media show Sohrabi participating in a southeast Tehran provincial bodybuilding competition earlier that same afternoon, hours before he joined the protests.

Sohrabi had worked from the age of 14 and later became a bodybuilding coach. Following his death, images of him circulated widely online, with some users comparing his appearance to Turkish actor Can Yaman and others calling him “Iran’s Brad Pitt.”

His brother announced on Instagram that their mother had been hospitalized due to the physical and psychological toll of her son’s death. Minutes after the post was published, the story was deleted and all images related to Davoud and his funeral were removed from the account. The page later became inaccessible.

IranWire reported that the family has been under heavy pressure from security authorities and was asked to describe Davoud as a Basij member.

Behzad Nikyar, also known as Behzad Kimasi Selkhori, was killed on the evening of January 9 in the city of Qazvin, according to relatives who spoke to Iran International.

They said he was not taking part in protests and had walked a few meters from his home to leave a garbage bag at the end of his alley when he was struck.

The bullet entered one side of his body and exited the other as he was returning home, relatives said.

A video said to have been filmed the following morning shows blood stains along an alley in the Khaghani area of Qazvin, which family members say trace the path Nikyar tried to crawl back to his front door. He later died of his injuries. He was the father of one daughter, according to those accounts.

Nikyar’s death comes amid a wave of social media videos and testimonies alleging that security forces opened fire on pedestrians on January 8, 9 and 10, including people described by witnesses as not participating in demonstrations.

One video from Tehran’s Sattarkhan district, recorded by a building’s surveillance camera and circulated online, appears to show three people walking along a sidewalk when two armed men on a motorcycle stop ahead of them and fire in their direction without visible warning.

In Mashhad, a man was shot in the neck on the evening of January 9 while buying groceries about 50 meters from security forces, according to a witness account sent to Iran International.

In the northern city of Rasht, a resident said his elderly mother was hit by multiple pellet rounds in the head and legs after leaving a pharmacy at dusk that day. Another report described a pregnant woman shot outside a pharmacy in Isfahan.

Separately, a 16-year-old boy, Kasra Vafapour, was killed by a gunshot wound to the heart on January 9, according to citizen reports, which said he had gone out to buy medicine for his younger sister.

Residents from several cities, including Neyshabur, Borujerd and Sari, have said that security forces fired pellet rounds “indiscriminately” at passersby in recent weeks.

At least 36,500 people have been killed during the national uprising. Tens of thousands more have been reported injured or detained.

Students at several Iranian universities held a third consecutive day of protests on Monday, chanting against Ali Khamenei. At Amir Kabir, Tehran and Alzahra universities, students set fire to the flag of the Islamic Republic. At some of these universities, including Tehran University, Basij forces attacked students.

The image – a Basij-aligned student climbing up to pull down a stuffed animal – spread quickly online. More than a campus scuffle, it suggested a phrase that began on social media is now being contested in the physical arena of protest and counter-mobilization.

From meme to material symbol

The nickname Rat-Ali gained traction during the June war with Israel, when Khamenei largely disappeared from public view and state media aired only prerecorded video messages. Reports that he had taken shelter in fortified underground facilities during military escalation and later unrest fueled the metaphor.

In Persian, “moush” connotes hiding and evasion. By pairing it with the Supreme Leader’s name, critics flip the state’s image of firm leadership.

On Monday, that inversion took tangible form. The rat was not only an online meme but an object displayed and physically removed.

Political satire often loses force when ignored. Authority can neutralize insult through indifference. The decision by a Basiji student to climb the tree and take down the toy had the opposite effect: it signaled that the symbol was perceived as threatening enough to confront.

Precedent in protest language

Iran’s protest culture has repeatedly transformed ridicule into durable shorthand. After the 2020 US drone strike that killed IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, some Iranians referred to him as “cutlet,” a darkly comic reference to the condition of his remains. The term proved difficult to suppress despite official efforts to preserve Soleimani’s image as a national icon.

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  Israeli Killings Of IRGC Generals Unleash Mockery Among Iranians

However, Moush-Ali carries sharper political implications because it targets the apex of the system. Khamenei’s authority rests not only on constitutional powers but also on cultivated distance – a blend of religious stature and institutional control.

Mockery compresses that distance. A rat hanging from a tree reduces a figure positioned as untouchable into a repeatable visual punchline.

Authoritarian systems rely in part on aura – an impression of inevitability and psychological dominance. When that aura becomes vulnerable to parody, the cost of reaction rises. Suppression can amplify visibility; indifference can appear weak.

The scene at Sharif involved a toy, a tree and a handful of students. Yet the rapid spread of the image suggested a broader recalibration of political language.

In early January, shortly after protests that began over economic grievances spread nationwide, authorities moved classes online in what officials described as a seasonal measure but which students widely viewed as an effort to preempt campus mobilization.

Now, with in-person classes resumed, memorial gatherings for those killed in January’s violent crackdown have evolved into open defiance on campuses in Tehran, Mashhad and Isfahan. Some have escalated into stand-offs between protesting students and pro-establishment groups.

In a notable shift, recent rallies have included chants naming Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last monarch, as “the leader of Iran’s revolution,” and calling for the restoration of monarchy nearly five decades after the 1979 revolution.

On Monday, students at the University of Tehran organized a ceremony for Mohammad Reza Mohammadi Ali, a master’s student in theology. A group known as United Students reported that the Basij student organization sought to appropriate the event, claiming the deceased had supported the government.

Opposing students responded with chants including “This flower has fallen, a gift to the homeland,” “Woman, Life, Freedom,” and “By the blood of our comrades, we stand to the end.”

At Sharif University of Technology, a silent candlelight vigil turned confrontational after university cultural officials broadcast Quran recitations and music over loudspeakers. Students holding photos of the dead protested what they described as an attempt to drown out the gathering.

Videos circulating online show rival groups facing off. Pro-government students chanted support for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and slogans such as “Allahu Akbar” and “Death to America,” while calling for the expulsion of those they labeled “rioters.”

Opposition chants targeted the Islamic Republic, Khamenei, and institutions such as the Basij and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Symbols have become vivid markers of division. Pro-government students carried the flag of the Islamic Republic and burned U.S. and Israeli flags during demonstrations. Opposition students, by contrast, covertly brought in the pre-revolutionary lion-and-sun flag — replaced after 1979 — and raised it during gatherings this week. On Monday, students at three Tehran universities also set fire to the Islamic Republic flag.

Students at two Tehran universities and one in Isfahan have also called for the restoration of their pre-1979 names, which referenced members of the Pahlavi royal family before being changed after the revolution.

University security offices — and, according to student accounts, plainclothes forces believed to be operating from outside campuses — have been present during several confrontations, at times appearing to side with pro-establishment students.

Students report identification cards being photographed and participants filmed, actions widely interpreted as intimidation. Some universities have allegedly sent text messages barring certain students from campus and warning of possible disciplinary proceedings.

The renewed campus unrest places Iran’s leadership in a delicate position. A forceful intervention risks inflaming tensions and pushing protests beyond university gates. Yet allowing sustained mobilization at institutions long regarded as incubators of political activism could embolden broader opposition.

That dilemma is complicated by a longstanding legal safeguard.

A 2000 law prohibits military, police and security forces from entering university campuses to conduct operations, make arrests or use weapons without formal authorization. The measure was enacted after the July 1999 unrest, when vigilantes and plainclothes security forces stormed dormitories at the University of Tehran, triggering nearly a week of nationwide turmoil.

Despite the law, human rights groups and media outlets have documented repeated instances over the years in which security forces entered campuses without authorization, including during recent protests.

“Hello. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) can hear your voice and wants to help you. Below is the necessary guidance on how to securely contact us virtually,” the post said, accompanied by a short video outlining encrypted communication methods.

The message marks the CIA’s most explicit Persian-language public outreach effort, similar to prior calls by Israel’s Mossad but rare for the US agency.

The move appears aimed at gathering intelligence on Iran’s nuclear and military programs, as well as domestic dissent, while providing support to potential informants.

In recent years, several intelligence services - especially the CIA, and to a lesser extent MI6 and Mossad - have normalized open, platform-based messaging that resembles advertising but is intended for secure outreach to potential sources.

In 2025, the head of MI6 used X to unveil “Silent Courier,” a Tor-only dark-web portal for people in hostile or high-risk states - particularly Russia - to contact the agency securely.

In October 2024, the CIA published text and infographic instructions in Mandarin, Korean, and Farsi on how to securely contact the agency through its public and dark‑web (onion) sites.