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“He went out for freedom,” said the cousin of one of those who was killed when Iranian authorities mounted a deadly crackdown on protests across the country.
Jan. 28, 2026Updated 6:10 a.m. ET
One was a 23-year-old budding fashion designer, another a prospective engineering student bound for Tehran. There was also a mother, father and son who had once considered emigrating as a family in hopes of a better life.
All were killed in the protests that convulsed Iran for weeks starting in late December, according to their families and human rights groups. The demonstrations began over economic malaise but swelled into a nationwide antigovernment movement that posed the most serious threat to the regime in years.
The government violently quelled the protests and authorities imposed a stringent internet and communication blackout that has made it difficult to know the magnitude of the crackdown and the death toll. Rights groups say thousands have been killed.
The New York Times has been able to piece together some of the stories of those who have been killed in recent weeks, through interviews with their family members outside the country and reports by human rights groups. Not all of the details could be independently verified.
Some of those family members had recently left Iran, while others said they had managed to receive international phone calls from relatives in Iran this month, during a brief respite from the blackout.
The families said that their loved ones were motivated to join the protests by a desire for change in Iran.
