Mahnaz Mahdi Zadeh

Mahnaz Mahdi-Zadeh was killed on November 16, 2019, at the age of 37. Born on February 24, 1982, she was the daughter of Mahmoud and lived in Shahriyar, a city in Alborz Province. She worked as a healthcare professional in Shahriyar, dedicated to helping others.

In November 2019, nationwide protests erupted after a sudden 300% increase in petrol prices. The government forces responded with ruthless violence, killing and injuring many protesters. On 16 November, when Mahnaz heard about the brutality taking place in the streets, she felt it was her duty to help the injured. With this sense of responsibility, she joined the protests, armed only with bandages and antiseptic, determined to tend to the wounded.

The streets of Shahrak Andisheh Phase 1 in Shahriyar had turned into a battlefield. While Mahnaz was treating the injured, a plainclothes officer shouted to a police officer on top of a truck, “Shoot the Molotov cocktail at her!” The officer then aimed directly at Mahnaz and fired live bullets. One bullet struck her heart, and another hit her head. She collapsed to the ground, covered in blood, and died instantly.

Several of her colleagues witnessed this horrifying crime. Yet the regime falsified her murder, with the forensic report claiming that she died from a sharp object penetrating her heart. Her body was withheld for ten days as the authorities used it to pressure her family into silence, forcing them not to file complaints or publicise Mahnaz’s death.

When the regime finally returned her body, her family was allowed to bury her in Behesht-e Rezvan Cemetery, Shahriyar, far from their home. Even then, the regime threatened and pressured her family, forbidding them from discussing her death with anyone.

Mahnaz was brutally murdered while fulfilling her professional duty and her moral responsibility as a human being to help others. After her death, her family was silenced and forced into submission. But Mahnaz’s voice, and the voices of many others like her, will continue to echo through the generations to come.

We stand against injustice, and we will remember all the Iranians who sacrificed their lives for freedom and democracy. Their sacrifices will not be in vain.