Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

On the third anniversary of the Woman, Life, Freedom protest where at least 382 protesters were killed, ABC has launched an interactive map of protest victims, documenting individuals killed for demanding their rights for over four decades. The map exposes the scale and persistence of the state’s deadly response to dissent.

Three years after the nationwide Woman, Life, Freedoms protests, the Iranian authorities’ violent suppression of dissent continues. To mark this anniversary, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran (ABC) has launched an interactive map of protest victims, documenting decades of extrajudicial and arbitrary killings and executions of those who took to the streets to demand their rights. ABC has documented at least 1,566 such executions so far and is launching the map with 720 processed cases. 
 
“Since 1979, Iran has killed men, women and children simply because they took their grievances to the public. Some are well-known, but most are not,” said Roya Boroumand, ABC’s Executive Director. “It is our responsibility to ensure that they are known and remembered.”
 
Iran’s monarchy ended with mass protests, but its fall did not end protests — it redirected them against the new leadership. From day one, a wide spectrum of citizens— minorities (Baluchis, Arabs, Azeris, Kurds, Turkmen), women, secularists, grand ayatollahs, workers, teachers, students — have contested the revolutionary rulers’ vision of the state. They have protested for their civil, political, cultural, and economic rights; they have protested state violence and for justice and accountability. The Islamic Republic's response has been invariably punitive. It has targeted citizens’ lives, bodies, minds, and livelihood, inflicting profound and lasting harm on individuals, communities, and society at large.

Protesters have faced beatings by security forces and government-backed vigilantes, live gunfire, mass arrests, disappearances, floggings, arbitrary detention and torture, and executions. ABC has documented sham judicial proceedings which led to convictions on trumped-up charges and executions of protesters, with at least 236 executions of protesters documented, so far. Many of these executions were of individuals who participated in the 2022 protests, including 24-year-old Mohammad Qobadlu and 23-year-old Majid Reza Rahnavard Pa’in Deh. Similar to other protesters executed, the government charged them with broadly-defined “moharebeh” (enmity against God), “esfad fel-arz” (corruption on earth), and murder, all following unfair trials characterized by repeated violations to their due process.

At the time of publication, the interactive map documents 720 instances of protest-related killings, 38 instances of threats/attempts, and six instances of failed assassination attempts - a powerful record of state violence since 1979. The map reflects a representative sample of protest victims. In total, ABC has documented over 1,566 deaths of protesters and is constantly adding more processed cases to the map. In addition to the 236 executions mentioned above, the data includes instances of arbitrary killings (1,213), extrajudicial killings (41), deaths in detention (73), and forced disappearances (3). At least 134 victims are children below the age of 18 and 215 are between the ages of 18 and 24.

Out of the 1,566 protest victims ABC has documented, over 383 involved minorities, including Kurds, Arabs, Baluchis, and Turks, whose protests are often met with a heavily militarized response and systemic abuse. Arab protesters make up the highest killed (with 187 documented so far), though the death toll of Baluchis and Kurds were higher during the 2022 protest (at least 94 and 37 deaths, respectively). ABC continues to investigate and verify cases throughout the Islamic Republic’s history, and believes that the total number of protesters killed, including among Iran’s minorities, is much higher.

The international community heard the call of the Woman, Life, Freedom protesters. But many protests before 2022 went unnoticed or were soon forgotten. Iranian authorities fear protests because they are windows into existing popular discontent and dissent, which they try to deny. They intimidate and silence protest victims and witnesses ensuring many remain underreported or are forgotten entirely. A comprehensive historical view of Iran’s suppression of protest is key to understanding Iran and devising consistent and effective responses to stop abuses. It is also a step to memorialize victims killed and support their right to truth and justice.
 
ABC’s new interactive map, Rights Denied: Mapping the Suppression of Protesters in Iran visualizes the Islamic Republic’s systematic killings, threats, and failed killing attempts of protesters from 1979 to the present. The map memorializes victims, reveals patterns of state violence that persist over decades, and highlights Iranians’ efforts to exercise their rights to assembly and protest to bring about changes since the inception of the Islamic Republic.
 
Iran claims to respect freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. Facts tell a different story. Many Iranians are arbitrarily killed for organizing protests, participating in them, or just passing by. Some are executed after forced confessions and sham trials convicted for “sedition”, “waging war against God,” “participating in illegal protests,” to national or other trumped-up charges. Others have disappeared or died in detention. “For those who lost loved ones,” said Roya Boroumand, “there is no peace and no closure unless they know the truth, society acknowledges the harm done to them, and perpetrators are held to account.” Rights Denied: Mapping the Suppression of Protesters in Iran is a call to recognize these patterns, hold Iran to account, and help ensure these stories are not forgotten.