Killing of Nika Shakarami
Nika Shakarami | |
|---|---|
| نیکا شاکرمی | |
 | |
| Born | 2 October 2005 Lorestan province, Iran |
| Died | September 2022 (aged 16) Tehran, Tehran province, Iran |
| Nationality | Iranian |
Nika Shakarami (Persian: نیکا شاکرمی; 2 October 2005 – September 2022) was an Iranian teenager who disappeared on 20 September 2022 in Tehran during the 2022 Iranian protests following the death of Mahsa Amini. Her family was informed of her death ten days later. She had died under suspicious circumstances suspected to involve violence by security forces. After her body was identified by her family, they made arrangements to bury her in Khorramabad, but the body was allegedly stolen by Iranian authorities and instead buried in Hayat Ol Gheyb, reportedly to exercise leverage over her family and to avoid a funeral procession which could be the catalyst for further protests.
The Iranian authorities denied wrongdoing, spread several contradictory stories concerning her fate, and allegedly coerced some of her family members to support these narratives. Shakarami's death and the attempts of government suppression regarding information on her fate was widely publicized in international media and further fanned the ongoing protests.
Background
Nika Shakarami was born on 2 October 2005[1] in the Lorestan province.[2] Little is publicly known of her background.[3] She had family ties to Khorramabad in southwestern Iran,[3] the city having been her father's hometown.[1] She was the second child in the family.[2] Shakarami lived with her aunt[4][5] in Tehran, the capital of Iran,[4][6] and worked in a coffee shop.[4] She moved to Tehran after the death of her father. Shakarami was reportedly very interested in painting.[2]
Disappearance and death
Shakarami participated in the Mahsa Amini protests of September 2022, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody and aimed at increasing women's rights in Iran. Shakarami went missing after protesting on Keshavarz Boulevard[7] in Tehran on 20 September.[1] She had left her house around 5 pm and brought with her a bottle of water and a towel as protection against tear gas.[5] She initially told her family that she was going to visit her sister.[8]
Shakarami was reportedly "fearless" during the protest and continued to ceaselessly chant slogans.[9] According to her family her last known communication was a message sent to one of her friends in which she claimed to be chased by security forces.[1][6][10] Apparently, she had been separated from her friends as the protests grew more crowded and louder.[4] Her friends last saw her around 7 pm.[11] On the night of 20 September, Shakarami's Telegram and Instagram accounts were deleted and her phone was turned off.[6][8]
After not hearing from her, Shakarami's family filed a missing person's report[8] and began searching police stations and hospitals.[10] They also posted pictures of her on social media in the hope that someone would recognize her.[4] Ten days later[1] they were informed that someone with similar characteristics had been discovered during forensic examinations of dead protesters[12] and her body was at the Kahrizak morgue,[6] located in a local detention center.[1] Shakarami's family members were not allowed to see the body, only to look at her face for a few seconds for identification purposes.[1] The authorities reportedly informed them that she had died as a result of falling from a great height.[12] They were shown a photograph of her lifeless body at a sidewalk to illustrate this but they found the picture to be suspicious.[6][7] Shakarami's aunt claimed in an interview that Shakarami's nose had been completely destroyed and that her skull had been "broken and disintegrated from multiple blows of a hard object",[10] perhaps a baton.[4][7][12] The family were told that Shakarami had been kidnapped, held, and questioned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps[10] for a week[9] and had then been detained for a short time at the Evin Prison,[5][10] a prison which has frequently been accused of systematically raping and torturing prisoners.[5][13]
Burial
The family transported Shakarami's body to Khorramabad for burial, intending to hold the ceremony on 2 October, which would have been her seventeenth birthday. The family however claims that security forces pressured them into not holding a funeral ceremony and instead bury her in silence.[14] Shakarami's aunt defied such pressure and posted on Twitter, inviting anyone interested to join the celebration of Shakarami's "last birthday".[15] Shakarami's aunt and uncle were arrested shortly thereafter in their home on 2 October and other family members were threatened that she would be executed if they participated in the protests.[1][16] The rest of the family were also pressured to agree to not organize a public funeral ceremony.[15]
Despite reaching an agreement that there would be no funeral,[15] Shakarami's family further claim that the authorities then stole Shakarami's body and buried her in Hayat Ol Gheyb,[17] about 40 kilometres away,[1][10][18] in order to avoid publicity[15] and prevent her grave becoming a pilgrimage site for protesters.[14] Iranian authorities have previously used the bodies of dead protesters to silence their families.[8][18][19]
Reactions
Hundreds of protesters gathered in the cemetery of Khorramabad on the day Shakarami's funeral would have been held, spurred into action by the theft of her body.[1][10][18] Activists accused the Iranian government of abusing, torturing and killing Shakarami.[6] The news of her death led to high school girls joining the anti-government protests in large numbers on 4 October,[20] some symbolically removing their hijabs in further defiance of the government. The schoolgirls joining the protests was called an "unprecedented show of support" by David Gritten of BBC News.[21] An article by Miriam Berger in The Washington Post described Shakarami's death and the attempt by the authorities to cover it up as "[giving the] demonstrators another rallying cry".[8]
The death of Shakarami and the theft of her body was widely reported on in the international media.[1][6][10][18] She was also widely commemorated on social media,[6] where her photo and name were circulated and her name became a hashtag used by the women's rights movement.[22] By 5 October, the hashtag had been tweeted more than two million times.[16] BBC correspondent Nafiseh Kohnavard commemorated Shakarami by posting a video on Twitter of Shakarami standing on a stage, singing and laughing.[23] The song sung by Shakarami in the clip is an old Iranian love song from the film Soltane Ghalbha (1968).[14] The BBC also shared videos of Shakarami speaking at the recent protests prior to her death.[6]
Government: Fall out the building
Iranian authorities initially did not publicly comment on Shakarami's death.[8] The state-owned Iranian news agency Islamic Republic News Agency has reported that the authorities have opened their own investigation into Shakarami's death.[24] On 4 October, the Tasnim News Agency, a news agency closely associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported that Shakarami had fallen to her death on 21 September from a building and that eight workers in this building had been arrested.[8][25] Other agencies made contradictory claims that she had committed suicide by jumping from the building herself.[16] Authorities used a similar suicide by jumping narrative concerning the death of another 16-year-old, Sarina Esmailzadeh, who died, according to Amnesty International, after reportedly being severely beaten by police with batons.[26][27] The state-owned Fars News Agency released video footage supposedly showing Shakarami entering the building, but the person in the footage is not identifiable.[8][25] Dariush Shahoonvand, prosecutor in the Lorestan province, denied any wrongdoing on the part of Iranian authorities and claimed that Shakarami had been buried in "her village" and that "foreign enemies" were to blame for creating a "tense and fearful atmosphere" following her death,[6][22] though he did not elaborate further on what he meant.[22]
On 5 October, Iranian state television aired interviews wherein Shakarami's aunt and uncle corroborated the government's narrative. During the interview, her aunt stated that Shakarami had fallen from a roof[8] and her uncle lamented Shakarami's brutal and suspicious death but also expressed doubt that the authorities were responsible, citing religious and legal hurdles, instead blaming social media radicalization and suggesting that she had been killed by protesters from Lorestan wishing to inspire more protests in Lorestan itself. In response to the previous anti-government statements of Shakarami's aunt, who had previously strongly blamed her death on the authorities, he dismissed her as "not a political person". He also claimed that burying Shakarami in Veysian rather than in Tehran had been the family's choice due to worries that "her killer" was in Tehran and could disturb the ceremony.[2]
Doubts were immediately cast on the sincerity of these interviews since both family members had previously accused the authorities of being behind Shakarami's death[16] and had recently been detained by authorities. The interview was reportedly filmed while they were still in government custody.[28] Video of the interview with Shakarami's uncle also showed the silhouette of a person off-camera who could be heard whispering "Say it, you scumbag!"[8][28][27]
In an interview with BBC News, Shakarami's mother criticized the government's attempts to cover up their involvement in Nika's death and said the interviews conducted with her brother and sister were done under coercion.[17][8][29] Shakarami's mother mentioned that she and other family members had also been intimidated in an attempt to force them to corroborate the official narrative.[8] According to Shakarami's mother, she had seen a medical report that showed that Shakarami had died on 20 September, the same day she went missing, due to blunt force trauma to the head.[29] A death certificate issued by a cemetery in Tehran also stated that Shakarami died after "multiple injuries caused by blows with a hard object".[27]
See also
- Human rights in Iran
- International Women's Day Protests in Tehran, 1979
- Iranian protests against compulsory hijab
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Ghobadi, Parham (4 October 2022). "Iran: Teen protester Nika Shakarami's body stolen, sources say". BBC News. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
- ^ a b c d "جزئیات جدید مرگ مشکوشاکرمی | دمینسپسمسخپبه تظاهرات رفته باشد اما ... | جمجمه و سر او متلاشی شده است | چرا پیکر نیکا در تهران دفن نشد؟". Hamshahri (in Persian). 4 October 2022. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ a b Daragahi, Borzou (4 October 2022). "Editor's letter: We can only be in awe of young women such as Nika Shakarami". The Independent. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f "نیکا شاکرمی، نوجوان ۱۷ سالهای که پیکرش پس از ۸ روز پیدا شد". Radio Zamaneh (in Persian). Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ a b c d Ali, Haniya (5 October 2022). "İran'da Mahsa Amini protestolarında hayatını kaybeden genç kadınlar". BBC News Türkçe (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Nika Shakarami: Tod der Jugendlichen befeuert Proteste in Iran". Der Spiegel (in German). 4 October 2022. ISSN 2195-1349. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
- ^ a b c "Iran: Nose smashed, skull pounded; security forces return body of another young woman with suspicious injuries". Firstpost. 2 October 2022. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Berger, Miriam (6 October 2022). "Death of 16-year-old protester adds new fuel to Iran uprising". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
- ^ a b "15th day of Iran protests; 300 killed, 15,000 arrested". NCRI Women Committee. 30 September 2022. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Iran authorities 'stole' body of beaten teen Nika Shakarami". The National News. 4 October 2022. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
- ^ "پیکر آسیب دیده دختر معترض و مفقود به خانوادهاش تحویل شد". Iranwire (in Persian). Archived from the original on 3 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ a b c Joshi, Ritika (4 October 2022). "Teenager Killed In Iran Protests As Death Toll Rises". SheThePeople. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
- ^ Mackey, Robert (28 August 2009). "Iranians Say Prison Rape Is Not New". The Lede. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022.
- ^ a b c Mazza, Viviana (4 October 2022). "L'ultimo sfregio a Nika Shakarami, che cantava senza il velo ed è stata uccisa in Iran". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ a b c d Basiak, Paweł (4 October 2022). "Brutalnie zabili nastolatkę. Potem wykradli jej ciało". Interia Wydarzenia (in Polish). Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ a b c d "False claims over Nika Shakarami's murder provoke outrage". NCRI Women Committee. 5 October 2022. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
- ^ a b "م ادر نیکا شاکرمی: میخواستند از من اعتراف بگیرند و بگویند خودکشی بوده". BBC News فارسی (in Persian). 6 October 2022. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
- ^ a b c d Botsjö, Markus (4 October 2022). "Regimen stal 16-åriga Nikas kropp". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
- ^ "Ιράν: Οι Αρχές έκλεψαν τη σορό 16χρονης διαδηλώτριας - Την έθαψαν κρυφά από την οικογένειά της". Proto Thema (in Greek). 4 October 2022. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ Graham-Harrison, Emma; Foumani, Maryam (4 October 2022). "Iranian schoolgirls take up battle cry as protests continue". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ Gritten, David (4 October 2022). "Iran schoolgirls remove hijabs in protests against government". BBC News. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ a b c "As protests spread to universities, Iran's president tries to ease unrest". CBC.ca. Associated Press. 4 October 2022. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ Hooper, Olivia (4 October 2022). "Nika Shakarami: Iranian Teen Body Allegedly 'Stolen' By Security Forces". Morocco World News. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
- ^ "Stegrad iransk ilska efter tonårings död". Västerbottens-Kuriren (in Swedish). 5 October 2022. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
{{cite web}}:|archive-date=/|archive-url=timestamp mismatch; 7 October 2022 suggested (help) - ^ a b Humayun, Hira; Salem, Mostafa; Moshtaghian, Artemis (5 October 2022). "Iranian authorities arrest eight after teenage protester's death". CNN. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
- ^ "Iran: 16-year-old protester jumped off a roof, wasn't killed by security forces". Times of Israel. Agence France-Presse. 7 October 2022. Archived from the original on 7 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
- ^ a b c Berg, Raffi (7 October 2022). "Iran protests: Nika Shakarami's mother says her daughter was murdered". BBC News. Archived from the original on 7 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
- ^ a b Ghobadi, Parham. "Nika Shakarami: Iran protester's family forced to lie about death - source". BBC. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
- ^ a b "Iran woman accuses state of killing daughter at Mahsa Amini protest". France 24. Agence France-Presse. 6 October 2022. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
