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Tag: Nika Shakarami

  • Nika Shakarami: Videos depict an Iranian teen protesting just before dying

    According to her mother, who spoke to BBC Persian, videos aired online show an Iranian teen protesting hours before she passed away.

    On September 20, Nika Shakarami, 16, is pictured burning her headscarf while standing on a dumpster in Tehran as people yell anti-Islamic Republic slogans.

    She later disappeared after telling a friend she was being chased by police.

    Her mother, Nasrin, also denied she was in a CCTV video put out by officials to support their claim that her death was not connected to the protests that day.

    Mrs Shakarami has accused security forces of murdering her daughter, but officials have said she died after being thrown from a building that was under construction, possibly by workmen.

    Last week, Iranian state TV broadcast blurry footage showing a teenage girl or woman whom it identified as Nika walking down an alley and entering a building through a door.

    But Mrs Shakarami told BBC Persian on Monday that the person in the video was not her daughter. Another source close to the family also said that they did not walk like Nika.

    Mrs Shakarami also alleged that her sister Atash and brother Mohsen had been forced into making false statements about Nika’s death while they were in detention.

    “They threatened to detain my brother’s four-year-old child,” she said.

    Mohsen was shown on TV last Wednesday night speaking against the current protests, as someone off camera seems to whisper to him: “Say it, you scumbag!” Atash was meanwhile seen saying that Nika “was killed falling from a building”. They were released after making the statements.

    Nika Shakarami
    IMAGE SOURCE,BBC PERSIAN SOURCE Image caption, Nika Shakarami’s mother said family members had been ordered to lie about how her daughter died

    Nika’s family has said they located her body at the mortuary 10 days after she went missing, and that they were only allowed by officials to see her face for a few seconds in order to identify her. Atash has also said that the Revolutionary Guards told her that Nika was in their custody for five days and then handed over to prison authorities.

    Mrs Shakarami said Nika had disappeared hours after attending the protest seen in videos that have surfaced on social media in recent days.

    One of the videos shows a girl dressed in black standing on a dumpster on a street and waving a burning headscarf. A crowd around her is heard chanting “death to the dictator” – a reference to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters. Another video shows the same scene from a different angle.

    “Like Nika, I have been against compulsory hijab since I was a child. But my generation was not brave enough to protest,” Mrs Shakarami told BBC Persian.

    “People my age accepted years of suppression, intimidation, and humiliation, but my daughter protested and she had every right to do so.”

    “Generation Z” – defined as those born between 1997 and 2012 – has been at the forefront of the protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by the morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict hijab law.

    Nika is not the only young female protester to have been killed during the unrest.

    The family of Hadis Najafi, 22, have said that she was shot dead by security forces while protesting in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, on 21 September.

    Another 16-year-old girl, Sarina Esmailzadeh, allegedly died after being severely beaten on the head with batons by security forces during protests in Karaj on 23 September, according to Amnesty International.

    On Monday, the Iranian Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child reported that a total of 28 children had been killed during the protests.

    Many other children had been arrested and were being held at detention centres, the group said.

     

     

     

     

  • Nika Shakarami: Videos show Iran teenager protesting before death

    Videos posted online show an Iranian teenager protesting hours before her death, her mother has told BBC Persian.

    Nika Shakarami, 16, is seen standing on a dumpster and burning her headscarf in Tehran on 20 September, as others chant slogans against the Islamic Republic.

    She later disappeared after telling a friend she was being chased by police.

    Her mother, Nasrin, also denied she was in a CCTV video put out by officials to support their claim that her death was not connected to the protests that day.

    Mrs Shakarami has accused security forces of murdering her daughter, but officials have said she died after being thrown from a building that was under construction, possibly by workmen.

    Last week, Iranian state TV broadcast blurry footage showing a teenage girl or woman whom it identified as Nika walking down an alley and entering a building through a door.

    But Mrs Shakarami told BBC Persian on Monday that the person in the video was not her daughter. Another source close to the family also said that they did not walk like Nika.

    Mrs Shakarami also alleged that her sister Atash and brother Mohsen had been forced into making false statements about Nika’s death while they were in detention.

    “They threatened to detain my brother’s four-year-old child,” she said.

    Mohsen was shown on TV last Wednesday night speaking against the current protests, as someone off camera seems to whisper to him: “Say it, you scumbag!” Atash was meanwhile seen saying that Nika “was killed falling from a building”. They were released after making the statements.

    Nika ShakaramiBBC PERSIAN SOURCE
    Nika Shakarami’s mother said family members had been ordered to lie about how her daughter died

    Nika’s family have said they located her body at the mortuary 10 days after she went missing, and that they were only allowed by officials to see her face for a few seconds in order to identify her. Atash has also said that the Revolutionary Guards told her that Nika was in their custody for five days and then handed over to prison authorities.

    Mrs Shakarami said Nika had disappeared hours after attending the protest seen in videos that have surfaced on social media in recent days.

    One of the videos show a girl dressed in black standing on a dumpster on a street and waving a burning headscarf. A crowd around her is heard chanting “death to the dictator” – a reference to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters. Another video shows the same scene from a different angle.

    “Like Nika, I have been against compulsory hijab since I was a child. But my generation was not brave enough to protest,” Mrs Shakarami told BBC Persian.

    “People my age accepted years of suppression, intimation and humiliation, but my daughter protested and she had every right to do so.”

    “Generation Z” – defined as those born 1997 and 2012 – have been at the forefront of the protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by the morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict hijab law.

    Nika is not the only young female protester to have been killed during the unrest.

    The family of Hadis Najafi, 22, have said that she was shot dead by security forces while protesting in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, on 21 September.

    Another 16-year-old girl, Sarina Esmailzadeh, allegedly died after being severely beaten on the head with batons by security forces during protests in Karaj on 23 September, according to Amnesty International.

    On Monday, the Iranian Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child reported that a total of 28 children had been killed during the protests.

    Many other children had been arrested and were being held at detention centres, the group said.

    Source: BBC

  • Nika Shakarami: Close source says Iran protester’s family forced to lie about death

    According to a source close to the family, relatives of a child who was killed during protests in Iran have been coerced into giving false statements.

    On September 20, Nika Shakarami, 16, vanished from Tehran after telling a friend she was being pursued by authorities.

    On Wednesday night, a state TV report showed her aunt, Atash, saying: “Nika was killed falling from a building.”

    Her uncle was also seen on TV speaking against the unrest, as someone seems to whisper to him: “Say it, you scumbag!”

    The source told BBC Persian that these were both “forced confessions” that came “after intense interrogations and being threatened that other family members would be killed”.

    Atash and Nika’s uncle, Mohsen, were detained by authorities after Atash posted messages online about her niece’s death and spoke to the media. The televised statements were recorded before they were released, according to the source.

    Relatives of a girl who died during protests in Iran have been forced into making false statements, a source close to the family has told BBC Persian.

    Nika Shakarami, 16, went missing in Tehran on 20 September after telling a friend she was being chased by police.

    On Wednesday night, a state TV report showed her aunt, Atash, saying: “Nika was killed falling from a building.”

    Her uncle was also seen on TV speaking against the unrest, as someone seems to whisper to him: “Say it, you scumbag!”

    The source told BBC Persian that these were both “forced confessions” that came “after intense interrogations and being threatened that other family members would be killed”.

    Atash and Nika’s uncle, Mohsen, were detained by authorities after Atash posted messages online about her niece’s death and spoke to the media. The televised statements were recorded before they were released, according to the source.

    Relatives of a girl who died during protests in Iran have been forced into making false statements, a source close to the family has told BBC Persian.

    Nika Shakarami, 16, went missing in Tehran on 20 September after telling a friend she was being chased by police.

    On Wednesday night, a state TV report showed her aunt, Atash, saying: “Nika was killed falling from a building.”

    Her uncle was also seen on TV speaking against the unrest, as someone seems to whisper to him: “Say it, you scumbag!”

    The source told BBC Persian that these were both “forced confessions” that came “after intense interrogations and being threatened that other family members would be killed”.

    Atash and Nika’s uncle, Mohsen, were detained by authorities after Atash posted messages online about her niece’s death and spoke to the media. The televised statements were recorded before they were released, according to the source.

    Atash told BBC Persian prior to her arrest on Sunday that the Revolutionary Guards had told her that Nika was in their custody for five days and then handed over to prison authorities.

    The judiciary has said that on the night she disappeared Nika went into a building where eight construction workers were present and that she was found dead in the yard outside the next morning.

    Tehran judiciary official Mohammad Shahriari was cited by state media as saying on Wednesday that a post-mortem showed Nika suffered “multiple fractures… in the pelvis, head, upper and lower limbs, arms and legs, which indicate that the person was thrown from a height”.

    He declared that this proved her death was nothing to do with the protests.

    However, a death certificate issued by a cemetery in the capital, which was obtained by BBC Persian, states that she died after suffering “multiple injuries caused by blows with a hard object”.

    Nika’s Instagram and Telegram accounts were also deleted after she went missing, according to Atash. Iranian security forces are known to demand that detainees give them access to social media accounts so that the accounts or certain posts can be deleted.

    Wednesday night’s state TV report also featured footage in which Atash was seen confirming that her niece’s body was found outside the building mentioned by the judiciary, even though that contradicted previous statements made by her and other members of the family.

    The family has said they located Nika’s body at the mortuary of a detention centre 10 days after she went missing, and that they were only allowed by officials to see her face for a few seconds in order to identify her. Atash said before she was detained that she did not go to the mortuary.

    Nika’s family transferred her body to her father’s hometown of Khorramabad, in the west of the country, on Sunday – on what would have been her 17th birthday.

    A source close to them told BBC Persian that the family agreed, under duress from authorities, not to hold a public funeral. But, the source said, security forces then “stole” Nika’s body from Khorramabad and secretly buried it in the village of Veysian, about 40km (25 miles) away.

    Hundreds of protesters later gathered in Khorramabad’s cemetery and chanted slogans against the government, including “death to the dictator” – a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

    Photos of Hadis Najafi (L) and Sarina Esmailzadeh (R)
    IMAGE SOURCE,TIKTOK/FACEBOOK Image caption, Hadis Najafi, 22, and Sarina Esmailzadeh, 16, died after taking part in protests in the city of Karaj

    Nika is not the only young female protester to have been killed during the unrest that erupted last month following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by the morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict hijab law.

    The family of Hadis Najafi, 22, have said that she was shot dead by security forces while protesting in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, on 21 September. Officials allegedly asked her father to say that she died of a heart attack.

    Another 16-year-old girl, Sarina Esmailzadeh, died after being severely beaten on the head with batons by security forces during protests in Karaj on 23 September, Amnesty International cited a source as saying. The source also told the human rights group that security and intelligence agents had harassed the girl’s family to coerce them into silence.

    Several videos made by Sarina before her death have now been posted on social media. In one record after finishing some school exams, she says: “Nothing feels better than freedom.”