Seventeen-year-old Sam Afshari had been taken to Madani Hospital in Karaj, close to Tehran, after being shot on January 8 throughout protests close to Mehran Square within the metropolis’s Azimieh district. Witnesses later instructed his household that medical doctors had been trying to save him and that he was nonetheless aware when requested his title.
“He had the breathing tube in his mouth. They came and shot him. A final bullet,” his father, Parviz Afshari, instructed Iran International’s English podcast Eye for Iran.
That day, protests unfold throughout Iran as demonstrators took to the streets demanding an finish to the Islamic Republic. Sam was amongst them.
“They went for a free Iran,” Parviz stated. “They went out to protest with bare hands. But they returned to their families with bullets in the back of the head and bullets in the back.”
Sam was his solely little one—an unimaginable loss, his father stated, that many Iranian households are actually struggling to perceive and clarify.
Sam was born in 2008 in Karaj and had turned 17 simply weeks earlier than his dying. He was finding out pc networks and hoped to proceed his training overseas.
“This year he was supposed to come here so we could sort out his papers,” his father stated, talking from Germany. “He wanted to continue his studies, go to university and study computer engineering.”
His father described him as cheerful and impressive.
“He joked a lot. We laughed so much,” Afshari stated. “We were always in video contact, talking about the future.”
“I don’t think he went out because of poverty,” he added. “He went out because of his beliefs. He wanted democracy and the right to speak his mind.”
According to accounts later gathered by the household, Sam was shot from behind close to a safety police put up at Mehran Square. Residents in a close-by house constructing tried to pull the wounded teenager into their parking space to defend him.
Security forces arrived shortly afterward and took him away, his father stated.
“They took my child with them.”
A hospital worker later knowledgeable the household that Sam had been transported to Madani Hospital together with different injured protesters. Witnesses instructed kin that when medical workers requested his title, he answered “Sam,” indicating he was nonetheless aware.
Hours later, he was lifeless.
“At the hospital they finished him off with a shot to the back of the head. The bullet came out through his cheek,” Parviz stated.
Because web entry had been minimize through the unrest, Afshari stated he didn’t study what had occurred till days later, when communication was briefly restored. Family members searched hospitals and morgues earlier than his brother positioned the title “Sam Afshari” on an inventory of the lifeless at Beheshte Sakineh morgue in Karaj.
When Sam’s mom was introduced to determine the physique, she initially couldn’t acknowledge him due to extreme accidents.
“One side of my child’s face was destroyed,” Afshari stated. “The back of his head too.”
She confirmed his identification solely after asking officers to uncover a tattoo on his chest bearing the phrase “Mother” written in Latin script.
“When they saw the tattoo, they realized, yes, tragically — it was Sam.”
According to the household, authorities initially ordered that Sam be buried quietly at evening in a distant space. After negotiations and funds, kin secured permission to bury him nearer to Karaj, however cemetery house was scarce.
“There were so many graves,” his father stated. “They said there was simply no space.”
At Kalak-e Bala cemetery in Karaj, Sam was buried above one other younger protester as a result of burial plots had been already crammed.
“Under his grave there is another martyr, Amir Bayati, and above is my son, Sam Afshari,” Afshari stated.
Relatives described morgue halls crowded with our bodies and refrigerated vans ready outdoors — scenes they stated mirrored the dimensions of deaths households had been confronting within the days after the crackdown.
‘He needed a free Iran’
As the interview continued, Afshari’s grief gave means to anger and appeals for accountability.
“This is no longer the time for my tears. Now I feel rage,” he stated. “If nothing happens, the blood of our children will be trampled. Our people—90 million human beings—are now hostages. Hostages of the Islamic Republic.”
He urged the worldwide group not to stay silent. “The terrorist Islamic Republic must be brought to an end,” he stated.
Throughout the interview, he returned repeatedly to the long run his son by no means had.
“He had so many dreams, and I had so many dreams for him,” he stated. “We buried this child with thousands of dreams.”
For Afshari, the story ends the place it started—with a teen who left residence hoping for a unique future. “He went for a free Iran,” his father stated. “And we buried him instead.”