She was Helping the Injured when They Killed Her

Ameneh Shahbazi, 34, has been named as yet another victim of the recent fuel price protests in Iran. Shahbazi was shot and killed in Marlick, Karaj, on Sunday, November 17. IranWire understands that at least a hundred people have been killed in the protests.

An informed source told IranWire: “[Ameneh] had left home to buy medicines when she became aware of the protests. A man was shot near her. She knelt down to wrap her scarf around the leg of the wounded person, when she was shot in the back of the head.”

Shahbazi was a housewife and mother to 15-year-old Amir Hossein, 12-year-old Mersad, and 4-year-old Baran. Her husband was a motorcycle delivery driver. IranWire understands that the authorities failed to deliver Shahbazi’s body to her family.

“A friend in the forensic medicine department [at a local hospital] said they will deliver the body to Behesht Zahra Cemetery,” a source told IranWire. “When we arrived at Behesht Zahra, the cemetery managers said the body had not been delivered to them. We insisted on an explanation – eventually we were directed to the morgue. There, we were told that the authorities could not release the body. The morgue managers had been ordered to return the body to forensic medicine, who would bury it, and then report to us.”

Officials at the forensic medicine department then held “classes” to give specific instructions to the families of those killed in the protests. The instructions said that no special ceremonies should be held at the funerals, and that family members were not to give interviews to journalists or others.

Shahbazi’s family finally received her body on Tuesday, November 19, through friends working at the forensic medicine department and the cemetery. The friends had asked the family how much they could pay to receive the body – but they relented when they realized that the husband worked as a delivery driver.

The source also told IranWire that Shahbazi’s family had been contacted by police detectives.

“We do not know what the police want with [Shahbazi’s family]. Maybe they just have more instructions for them. But on the phone, the police asked the family to report to the police station to file a complaint. But a complaint against who?”