Victim Accounts: Hossein Mahmoudi and the Cost of Protest in Iran

 

 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), 22 January 2026: Iran Human Rights has obtained new details about the killing of Hossein Mahmoudi, a 36-year-old protester from Isfahan, who was shot dead during nationwide anti-government demonstrations on 8 January.

Sources close to Mr Mahmoudi’s family told the organisation that he and several of his friends were killed by direct fire from government security forces in Falavarjan, west of Isfahan. 

 

 

As protests spread across the country in January, Mr Mahmoudi decided to join street demonstrations with a group of friends, driven by growing anger at repression and deteriorating living conditions.

According to a family source, Mr Mahmoudi was present at protests in Isfahan on 8 January. When security forces opened fire on demonstrators, he and his companions fled towards the Jafar-abad area of Falavarjan. There, they were met with bursts of live ammunition from military units, killing them all. Numerous wounded protesters were reportedly left bleeding in the streets.

The same source said that authorities initially refused to hand over the bodies of Mr Mahmoudi and others. “There were many corpses,” the source said. The family was only able to retrieve his body on January 16th, after being threatened by security officials and warned not to speak publicly about his death. To recover his remains, the family was forced to pay 400 million tomans (approx. 2400 euros), reportedly charged at 80 million tomans (approx. 480 euros) per bullet.

The source added that further details of what appeared to be a mass killing of protesters in Falavarjan remain difficult to obtain, due to disrupted communications with Iran.

Friends and relatives describe Mr Mahmoudi as an enthusiast of martial arts and bodybuilding, and as someone who longed to live in an Iran free from repression.

Earlier, two independent sources reported that the death toll from anti-government protests in Isfahan province alone exceeded 1,600 people, underscoring the scale of the crackdown and the human cost of dissent in the Islamic Republic.

Based on available information, the number of protesters killed is assessed to be significantly higher than the total verified by IHRNGO. However, according to information verified by the organisation, since the onset of the protests at least 3,428 protesters have been killed. This figure is meaningfully lower than eyewitness accounts and the organisation’s own assessment of the likely true number of fatalities. Estimates published by some media outlets, drawing on information reportedly received from government or hospital sources, indicate that between 5,000 and 20,000 protesters may have been killed.