They Put a Bull’s Eye on My Son’s Forehead

"I saw his body, I couldn't believe it. I said no, this is not my baby. After they showed me his clothes and ID, I accepted that he was my son. He was frozen in the morgue, his face shattered. The bullet hit his head, right in the middle of his forehead. I was told before this that he was okay, but they killed him."

Alireza Anjavi was the only rermaining child of Noushin Mahmoudi, and another victim of the November 2019 crackdown on protests in Sadra city in Shiraz county. According to her, Anjavi wasn’t protesting, he got caught up in the unrest and was shot dead on his way home from work to eat lunch with her.

Alireza was 26 years old, held a Bachelor's degree in architecture, and had been renting and working in a shop in Danesh Boulevard outside Shiraz Azad University College of Art and Architecture in Sadra City for the last few months, tutoring students preparing to write their architectural theses for graduation. Alireza had gone to work on Saturday, November 16, a day like any other Saturday. ”The city was quiet in the morning. If we knew or someone had told us that there were going to be protests in the city, I wouldn't have let him go that day. If he knew about it, he wouldn’t have gone; he wouldn't have gone for me."

The protests in Sadra City began around noon, with people stopping their cars and chanting in the streets, bringing some of the main streets around Golha Square (Falak-e Sangi) and Molana Junction (Pomp-e Gaz) to a standstill. The streets were blocked so people had to go on foot to get anywhere. 

Soon after the intervention of the Basijis, the demonstrations turned violent, and people’s anger was directed toward the Basij base near Hosseiniyeh Seyed al-Shohada mosque at Pomp-e Gaz Junction. People threw stones at the base, while Basiji forces fired shots from the roof. 

As he usually did on most working days, Alireza Anjavi headed home in the Molana-7 neighborhood for lunch. He worked near where people were protesting, so he had to travel through the areas on his way back home. His mother was waiting, but he didn’t arrive. "I called him, I heard lots of noises. Alireza said there were protests and he was stuck in the middle of it. I said come anyway, find a way. He said okay, he would come if he could. I was in contact with my baby until 3pm, but after 3:30pm he no longer answered his phone. At first I thought he might not be able to answer, or his phone was lost. But then there was no news from him and he was still not answering his phone. Of course, I was worried because there was smoke coming into the windows of our house and we heard the sound of shooting."

By Sunday, there was still no news of Alireza. His mother began looking for him, without any success. Her sister's husband called the police to inquire about him more than once. "In some of the calls, he [her brother-in-law] was told not to worry; we know where he is, we've seen him, they said. He's fine and is being taken care of, and he'll be home by the weekend. They were giving us hope; I was worried but at the same time thought it was good that he was coming home."

Mourning a Third Son

The hope continued throughout the weekend. Noushin Mahmoudi hoped for Alireza's release, the thought of having to mourn for the loss of a son again unbearable. Mahmoudi's other two children, both of whom suffered from muscular dystrophy, died at the ages of 19 and 21.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday passed with no news of Alireza. On the morning of Saturday, November 23, Alireza's mobile phone number popped up on her phone. "I answered the phone; I thought it was Alireza, but someone else was on the line. He said he was calling from Branch 8 of the police station, and that I had to go to the station to follow up on Alireza's case. I went, they asked me a few questions about what Alireza was wearing on the day I last saw him, where he was going, whether he had a car or not and where he worked. They asked for our home address and for the address for the shop and they got a copy of Alireza's birth certificate. In the end they said I should go to the forensics department."

Mahmoudi says she decided not to go to the forensics department because she thought it was only a matter of completing her son's missing person case file; she was alone and thought it wasn’t necessary to report to the department. But she was contacted again in the afternoon: "I answered; they asked if I had gone to the forensic department, I said no. They asked who else in the family was following Alireza's case. I said my sister's husband and they got his number from me."

Alireza Anjari's uncle received a call and was also asked to go to the forensics department for Sadra City. When he arrived, they showed him several photographs of people killed in the protests. One of them was a photo of Alireza. "My sister took me to their home in Shiraz,” Mahmoudi said.  “They told me about Alireza. They said they had identified Alireza among the photos of the dead in the forensics department. My son was killed and was innocent; many innocent people like my son were killed that day in Sadra City.”

Another Quiet Ceremony

The family were told they had to get a letter from the governor's office in order for Alireza's body to be transferred out of the morgue. In the governor's office, Alireza’s mother and other family members were told that the ceremony should be quiet, and that when they returned home and organized his funeral, they should say that the cause of death had been a car accident. 

However, the death certificate they were given stated that the cause of death was murder. "We were told we had no right to bury Alireza in Shiraz cemetery; we wanted to bury him there because we had buried Alireza's father and his two brothers in this cemetery. But the governor said he could only be buried either in the cemetery of Dinkan [a village near the industrial area of Shiraz], or Qasr-e Qomshe [another village near Shiraz], or Ahmadi Kharameh [a town east of Shiraz]. We chose Dinkan because it was closer to Sadra City." Mahmoudi’s husband Seyyed Mohammad Reza Anjavi was a war veteran and had lost his leg from the knee down after being injured during the Iran-Iraq war. He had died in 2002 as the result of these injuries.

After receiving a letter from the governor's office, Mahmoudi did go to Building 2 at Shiraz Forensics Department in Modares Boulevard to identify her son and ensure his body was released to the family. "I saw his body, I couldn't believe it. I said no, this is not my baby. After they showed me his clothes and ID I accepted that it was him. He was frozen in the morgue, his face shattered. The bullet hit his head, right in the middle of his forehead. I do not know whether he was shot from the front or from the back, but my sister's husband, who had seen Alireza's hat, said that his head had been splattered inside the hat. I only know that he was shot in the protests, but I do not know who shot him or what kind of gun was used.”

Once Mahmoudi identified the body, the security forces prepared their own ambulances and transferred the body to Dinkan cemetery. "They prayed for him; they had also prepared the grave. Our relatives and family were there, but the agents buried him without letting anyone see Alireza's face."

Alireza's body was handed over to the family on Monday, November 25, and he was buried the same afternoon. The family held a ceremony to mark the third and seventh days after Alireza’s death on Friday, November 29. 

Mahmoudi said she didn’t know why she wasn’t told for a whole week that her son had died. "I don't know if they did it for security reasons. I asked why they did it to me. They told me that they were asked to do so."

Ms Mahmoudi said no one from the authorities had contacted them to declare Alireza Anjavi a martyr or to comfort the family. But on Sunday December 15, they called her and asked her to go to the police station. "They did not tell me why I had to go but when I went, they gave me a complaint form to fill out, saying that they would file a case to find my son's killer, adding that I could get a lawyer if I wished. I want to find my son's killer. I'm pursuing them so that my son's blood is not wasted."

Ms Mahmoudi says that whatever she might be given as compensation will not help fill the gap left by the death of her child — “even if they gave me the world,” she said. She added that she will not give up, and will keep fighting for justice for her son."They say they are pursuing the case and will find the killer of Alireza. They told me they are ashamed of what has happened.” Whether or not they will fulfil their promises remains to be seen.