Iran International
Days before nationwide protest calls for January 8 and 9, Nourabad Mamasani was already under fire. Accounts received by Iran International describe live ammunition, snipers and heavy weapons used in a crackdown that culminated outside the town courthouse.
By January 4, the town in Fars province had entered a second wave of demonstrations, with gatherings reported on Haft-e Tir Boulevard, Imam Boulevard, Shariati Street, the main square and near public buildings as armed forces deployed and internet access was disrupted.
Nourabad, the main city of Mamasani County in southern Iran, had joined the protests earlier than many other parts of the country. Images, witness accounts and information sent to Iran International indicate that government forces began attacking protesters there from January 4 with tear gas, pellet rounds and live fire.
The violence escalated over the following days. By January 10, the area around the Nourabad courthouse had become the scene of a large-scale killing whose full toll remains unclear.
Residents described a heavy security presence from the early hours of the protests. Forces first tried to disperse crowds with tear gas, then opened fire as demonstrations continued. Some residents took shelter inside shops to escape the shooting.
Several protesters, including a 14-year-old girl, were wounded by bullets and pellet rounds during the January 4 crackdown. One witness said a relative was hit by pellets in the eye, nose and abdomen.
Reports also emerged of one protester killed by direct fire and another resident dying from respiratory complications linked to tear gas exposure.
Arya Zarei was among those killed during the Nourabad protests, according to information sent to Iran International. After his death, his family came under pressure to sign an official statement and avoid publicly discussing how he had been killed.
Behnam Izadi, a 35-year-old resident of Nourabad, was also among the early participants in the protests. On January 4, he used his car to help wounded protesters and others in the streets when the vehicle was hit by gunfire and tear gas and badly damaged.
Izadi was wounded in the attack but later returned to the protests. On January 8, according to accounts sent to Iran International, he was killed by a sniper positioned on the roof of a Basij base. The Basij is a paramilitary force under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The shot hit Izadi in the head and eye.
Crackdown intensifies
As protests spread on January 8 and 9, strikes across Nourabad became more widespread and security and military forces deployed through the city with military-grade weapons.
Residents burned tires and blocked roads, standing against government forces and pushing them back in some areas.
On the evening of January 8, residents heard explosions and sustained gunfire in parts of the city. Electricity was cut for about 20 minutes. Videos and accounts from that night showed thick smoke and shooting in protest areas.
Demonstrators gathered on streets leading to Bank Melli, the Education Department square and the courthouse area, chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic. Government forces responded with live ammunition.
One account sent to Iran International said government forces killed at least 12 protesters on January 9. Iran International has not been able to independently confirm the precise death toll because of internet disruptions, the transfer of bodies and wounded people to facilities linked to the Revolutionary Guards, and pressure on families.
Kamiab Ahmadi was among those killed during those days. A large crowd attended his funeral, and after the ceremony mourners moved toward the city center and the courthouse area.
Courthouse siege
On Saturday, January 10, protests in Nourabad took an even bloodier turn after funeral ceremonies for several of those killed.
Crowds moved from the funerals toward central Nourabad and gathered near the courthouse by late afternoon.
Multiple accounts said government forces had already positioned themselves inside the courthouse, on its roof and on surrounding buildings before protesters arrived.
As demonstrators approached the courthouse compound, members of the Revolutionary Guards and other armed units opened fire from several directions. Protesters later set fire to the courthouse building after coming under attack.
Witnesses said gunmen fired from the courthouse roof, the building behind Bank Melli, Pezeshkan Street and Koocheh Taxiha, or Taxi Alley, using Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns and heavier weapons.
According to those accounts, protesters were trapped around the courthouse and the shooting began without warning.
One witness said blood loss among the wounded and dead was so severe that blood flowed down the stairs from the building’s second floor to the lower level.
Mehrshad Gha’edi, Armin Shahrivar, Parisa Lashkari, Kamiab Ahmadi, Armin Gorjian and Ali Babakarami are among the names linked by residents to the Nourabad killings.
Residents said government forces removed bodies and wounded people from the area after dispersing the crowd, transferring some to facilities affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards.
Other accounts described wounded people being shot at close range in the streets after the initial assault.
Days later, bloodstains were still reportedly visible outside the courthouse. According to one account, government forces washed the street and sidewalk to remove traces of blood.
After rainfall later blocked a covered drainage canal, residents said two bodies were found there. According to those accounts, some wounded protesters had tried to hide inside the canal while fleeing gunfire and died there.
Bodies, pressure and restricted burials
Reports sent to Iran International show that authorities returned the bodies of those killed gradually, sometimes releasing only a few each day.
Families were required to sign written commitments, hold funerals before 6 or 7 a.m. and prevent large public gatherings, according to those accounts.
Some relatives said they were asked to pay sums ranging from 3 billion to 10 billion rials, or about $1,700 to $5,600, under the label of “bullet costs” before receiving the bodies of their loved ones.
In other cases, families said the release of a body was made conditional on accepting the official claim that the person killed had been a Basij member.
The pressure on families and restrictions on funeral ceremonies did not end public anger. According to another account, clashes broke out again during later funeral processions and government forces attacked mourners.
Amirreza Ahmadi, a 17-year-old who had taken part in protests between January 8 and 11, was arrested about a month later.
He was later released, but died one day after returning home from a cardiac complication, according to the account sent to Iran International. Relatives believe torture and injections of unidentified substances during detention contributed to his death.
The accounts from Nourabad Mamasani suggest the city was not only among the first to join the January protests before the main nationwide calls, but also one of the first places where government forces used live ammunition, snipers and heavy weapons against protesters in an organized way.
The full scale of what happened in Nourabad remains unclear.
Iran International’s public campaign seeks to document the names of those killed, the evidence around their deaths and the accounts of families and witnesses, building a public record of a crackdown authorities have sought to obscure.
Soleimani Ardestani, a religious scholar, former Mofid University professor and member of a reformist association of Qom seminary teachers and researchers, is being held in Qom’s prison.
According to Mojtaba Lotfi, an official from the office of the late dissident cleric Hossein Ali Montazeri, the court convicted him on all eight charges brought against him.
Lotfi said Soleimani Ardestani does not plan to appeal unless the court agrees to hold a public hearing.
In a letter from prison, Soleimani Ardestani said the charges against him included disturbing public opinion, insulting sacred values, insulting the leadership in relation to Ali Khamenei and his son Mojtaba, taking part in a gathering over the house arrest of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and assembly and collusion against domestic security.
Mousavi, a former prime minister, has been under house arrest since 2011 after rejecting the official result of Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election and becoming one of the symbols of the Green Movement protests.
Soleimani Ardestani also listed accusations such as propaganda against the system, spreading falsehoods online, insulting senior religious authorities, damaging the dignity of the clergy and “mind control and psychological suggestion” – a striking charge even by the standards of Iran’s broad political indictments.
He has called the indictment weak and baseless, criticized his arrest and solitary confinement, and said he wrote his defense not to seek acquittal but to leave a record for history.
The case began with remarks in a debate with pro-government cleric Hamed Kashani. Soleimani Ardestani questioned long-promoted Shiite accounts about the death of Fatemeh Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammed and wife of Ali, the first Shiite Imam.
In Iran, the story of Fatemeh’s martyrdom is not only a religious narrative but part of a vast state-backed culture of mourning, ritual and political identity.
Soleimani Ardestani argued that if Ali had merely watched his wife being attacked and had not intervened, then the traditional account would raise questions about his justice. He later said he had not insulted Fatemeh and was challenging what he called the “stories told by religious singers or eulogists (maddahs).”
He also questioned mourning ceremonies for Muhammad Taqi, the ninth Shiite Imam, saying his death was linked to jealousy by his wife after he remarried and that mourning the event 1,300 years later was meaningless.
The backlash was immediate. Pro-government eulogists, who play an influential role in mobilizing religious crowds, attacked him with vulgar and sexist language. Reports also emerged of a group attack on his home.
Hardline figures called for prosecution and defrocking, while some religious voices went further, suggesting that denial of Fatemeh’s martyrdom could amount to leaving Shiite doctrine.
The controversy also split parts of the political middle ground. Reformist figures criticized Soleimani Ardestani’s tone and timing, while others warned that violent threats, home attacks and denunciations violated freedom of belief.
The sentence is significant because it shows how quickly the Islamic Republic can convert a dispute over religious history into a security case.
Soleimani Ardestani was not an outside critic of clerical rule. He was a cleric from inside the seminary world, which makes his challenge more sensitive.
By sentencing him to prison and stripping him of clerical status, the system is not only punishing one man. It is policing the boundaries of who is allowed to interpret religion, how far internal debate can go, and what happens when religious scholarship collides with the political theology of the state.
The platform, called IranSync, synchronizes the screens of mobile phones held by spectators to create large coordinated images and messages across sections of a stadium, Salar Gholami told Iran International.
“We created a system that allows people to display unified images and messages without bringing physical banners or flags into the stadium,” Gholami said.
According to Gholami, users do not need to install an application and can access the service through the IranSync website. After participants register, the system generates a design based on the number of people taking part, allowing neighboring phone screens to form a larger image.
Gholami said the platform can be used to display the Lion and Sun flag as well as slogans including “Free Iran,” “Reza Pahlavi,” and “Regime Change for Iran.”
Alternatives after FIFA restrictions
The launch follows efforts by some members of the Iranian diaspora, particularly in the United States, to challenge FIFA’s decision to bar the Lion and Sun flag from World Cup venues and to find alternative ways of displaying the symbol during matches.
Gholami said the project aims to attract international media attention to developments in Iran and prevent the issue from being overshadowed by coverage of the World Cup.
“The presence of international media at the World Cup creates an opportunity to amplify the demands of protesters and bring the voice of the Iranian people to a global audience,” he said.
The 2026 World Cup will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, with Iran’s matches scheduled to take place in the United States.
Gholami argued that supporters of the Islamic Republic could seek to use the tournament to improve the regime’s international image, adding that Iranian communities abroad should organize their own visibility campaigns.
During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Islamic Republic sought to prevent the voices of protesters in the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising from being heard in stadiums by sending large numbers of its supporters to the country.
The United States has issued visas to Iran's national football team players and coaching staff, but some members of the delegation have not been granted entry permits.
