A Young Couple Left for a Protest in Bushehr - and Never Came Home

According to reports obtained by IranWire, at least 30 people were killed when security forces opened fire on protesters in Bushehr Province on the night of January 8. Among the dead was a young couple - Mansoureh Heydari and Behrouz Mansouri - who were shot while leading a demonstration.

Bushehr was once imagined as the “beating heart of Iran’s energy” - a province anchored by a nuclear power plant, a massive special economic zone, and strategically critical ports.

Yet for decades, the people of this province - known for their tolerance and hospitality - have been left with little more than systemic deprivation.

On the evening of January 8, residents of Bushehr, Deylam, Ganaveh, and Kangan took to the streets to protest human rights abuses, economic hardship, and the lack of social freedoms.

Mansoureh Heydari was a nurse at the Bushehr Social Security Hospital and a mother of two children, aged 7 and 10.

She and her husband, Behrouz Mansouri, joined the protests together after finishing their work shifts.

“Mansoureh and her husband prepared to join the gathering after coming home from work,” a source told IranWire. “They left their children with their family and went out.

“They were both young, passionate, and, like many of us, they had reached their breaking point.”

The protests in Bushehr city were focused around Sangi Street, a key cultural and administrative area. An eyewitness who saw the couple being shot described what happened next:

“Around 7:00 PM, the crowd began moving from Sangi Street toward Ashouri Street. There is a mosque there called Masjed-e Quran, which serves as the primary base for Jafar Pour-Kabgani, the current representative of Bushehr in Parliament. The shots were fired at the people from inside that mosque.”

The witness emphasized that the march was peaceful until the authorities opened fire: “Everything was orderly. The regime’s claim that protesters burned banks first and then they fired is an absolute lie. The people were only chanting slogans.”

As security forces opened fire indiscriminately into the crowd, they also unleashed heavy tear gas.

“They followed the pattern of preventing anyone from reaching the wounded,” the witness said. “Despite the danger, people managed to struggle and get a few of the injured to the hospital. For this couple, it was already too late. We have no information on the fate of the others who were hit.”

Medical personnel in Bushehr told IranWire that at least 30 protesters died from direct gunshot wounds over the two nights.

Identifying the victims has been a slow and painful process, made even harder by the near-total shutdown of internet, mobile, and landline services across the country.