Six months after Iran’s January 8–9 massacre, in which opposition-linked estimates and evidence from inside Iran place the number of dead at between 35,000 and 40,000, The Jerusalem Post is publishing profiles of some of those killed, based on testimony provided by their families.
Among them was Rasoul Ziaei, a 26-year-old from Lenjan, Isfahan, whose family said he lost his life in profound loneliness, among strangers, and completely abandoned.
Rasoul was born on September 2, 1999. He was killed on January 8 and later buried in Gavart Cemetery in Isfahan after his family said they spent an entire week desperately searching for him, clinging to the hope that he might still be alive.
A young man full of joy, ambition, dreams
His family described him to the Post as a young man full of joy, ambition, and dreams.
“Rasoul was a young man full of joy for life and great dreams,” his family said. “He was ambitious, willing to take risks, a determined bodybuilder with impeccable character, and always wore a smile on his face.”
Those who knew him, they said, remember his kindness, warmth, and compassion.
“He was deeply compassionate and always cared about the well-being of others,” the family said.
On the morning of January 8, Rasoul arranged to meet friends that evening in Fooladshahr. After lunch, he told his mother that he was going to the gym. His parents, the family said, had no idea what he was actually planning.
At 4 p.m., he went to the gym. At 6 p.m., he went to the barber, as he often did, to freshen up. Afterward, he drove to Azad Mall in Zarrinshahr. Around 7 p.m., he ate a sandwich there until he received a phone call and left for Fooladshahr.
At approximately 9:30 p.m., his family said, Rasoul was struck by a bullet and collapsed.
Several bystanders picked him up, placed him in a car, and rushed him to the Mehr-o-Mani Clinic in the Maskan-e-Mehr district in an attempt to revive him. But, according to his family, he had already died.
His body was later transferred to the Shafa Clinic. The family said intelligence services removed it from there on Friday morning.
For a week, his relatives searched for him.
The authorities, they said, never accepted responsibility for his death. Only after days of agonizing searching did the family find him at the forensic medical center in Gavart, Isfahan.
“We have neither received nor accepted any financial compensation,” the family told the Post.
Ziaei family finds no peace after Rasoul's killing
Even after burying him, they said, there has been no peace.
“We live in constant fear that his gravestone will be destroyed,” the family said. “Because there is absolutely no sense of security, we remain in a state of continual anxiety. Justice has become meaningless in today’s Iran.”
The family also made grave allegations about the condition in which Rasoul’s body was returned to them.
“I want the world to know what they did to Rasoul and to all the others like him,” the family said. “I want the world to know the condition in which they returned Rasoul to us.”
According to the family, Rasoul’s body was returned with only one eye, had been cut open, and his organs had been removed. They said that in videos and photographs taken immediately after he was shot, both of his eyes appeared intact.
But after intelligence services seized his body from the Shafa Clinic in Fooladshahr, the family alleged, his corpse was desecrated.
“They did not even stop at desecrating his corpse,” the family said.
The Post is reporting the family’s account as testimony provided by relatives and has not independently verified the allegations regarding the treatment of Rasoul’s body.
The family said one of the most painful parts of the tragedy is that Rasoul’s parents do not know the full details of what they allege was done to him.
“The hardest and most painful part of this tragedy is that his parents - and in fact no one except his siblings - know this terrible truth,” the family said. “If my mother were ever to learn what was done to him, she would take her own life.”
But the family also wants Rasoul remembered as he lived, not only as he died.
Rasoul lived life full of laughter, warmth
They described a younger brother who filled family gatherings with laughter, mischief, and warmth.
Whenever the family gathered, Rasoul would jokingly put on his mother’s clothes, imitate her voice, and make everyone laugh. When tea was poured, he would playfully stick his finger into a cup so that no one else would want to drink it.
As a child, they said, he tried to avoid homework because all he wanted to do was play.
At night, he would simply go to bed and tell his siblings: “You have to do my homework.”
Because he was the youngest brother, and so loved, they would imitate his handwriting and complete the schoolwork for him.
For his family, those memories now exist alongside the unanswered questions of his final hours: where he was taken, what happened to his body, who gave the orders, and why his relatives were left searching for him for a week.
Their message to the international community is simple.
“Please help us,” the family said. “These are the very people who speak of divine justice and of God - yet look at what they are doing to their own young people.”
Even if Rasoul and the others killed can never return, they said, the world still has a responsibility to those who remain.
“At least save the future of the young people who remain,” the family said, “whose lives are in immediate danger.”