Iranian Forces Storm Memorial for Yalda Aghafazli, Detain Mourners

The Islamic Republic’s security forces and plainclothes agents disrupted a memorial ceremony for a young woman who died during the 2022 nationwide protests.

Agents disrupted the memorial for Yalda Aghafazli at her gravesite in the Behesht Zahra cemetery in Tehran, according to Fatemeh Heydari, the sister of another victim, Javad Heydari.

Heydari reported that the forces created an atmosphere of fear and disorder during the ceremony, which was attended by several families who lost loved ones in the protest crackdown.

She said that Hossein Naderbeigi, a protester who was shot in the eye during the 2022 protests, was present at the memorial and was severely beaten and detained by the security agents.

Majid Salahi, a relative of Yalda Aghafazli, was also arrested by security forces during the disruption of the ceremony.

Yalda Aghafazli, a 19-year-old artist and protester in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, was detained on October 26, 2022, during a protest in Tehran.

She was transferred to Qarchak prison in Varamin and went on a hunger strike to protest the prison conditions.

Aghafazli was released on November 6 without any charges, but died under suspicious circumstances a few days later.

Her body was buried in Behesht Zahra cemetery under tight security measures.