The violent crackdown on anti-government protests in Iran has claimed the life of a young fashion student, whose family endured a horrific search through hundreds of bodies to find her, according to human rights sources.
A Dream Buried by Violence
Rubina Aminian, a 23-year-old Kurdish fashion student at Shariati College in Tehran, was killed on the evening of Thursday, January 8. She was shot in the head from close range after leaving her college and joining protest gatherings. Sources close to her family told Iran Human Rights that the fatal shot came from behind.
Upon hearing the news, her distraught family travelled to Tehran to identify her body. They were met with a devastating scene: numerous bodies of protesters killed in the preceding week. The family was not initially allowed to take Rubina's body for burial and was forced to search among the corpses themselves.
"It wasn't just my daughter; I saw hundreds of bodies with my own eyes," Rubina's mother said. A source close to the family confirmed, "They undoubtedly saw many of the bodies of young people killed during the protests."
Her family remembered Rubina as a joyful young woman passionate about fashion and clothing design, whose dreams were "buried by the violent repression of the Islamic Republic."
A Harrowing Journey to Burial
After eventually securing her body, the family faced further obstruction. When they returned to their home in Marivan, they found it surrounded by the military, which prevented them from holding a burial there. Rubina Aminian was finally laid to rest on the roadside between Kermanshah and Kamyaran.
Her name has been added to a growing list of victims. Activists report the death toll from the crackdown on nationwide protests has spiked to at least 538 people. Among those killed, 490 are believed to be protesters and 48 are members of the security forces. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency states that more than 10,600 people have been detained.
Nationwide Protests Defy Extreme Threats
The latest wave of protests, which began on December 28, 2025, over rampant inflation, has since spread to more than 100 cities. Despite Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei labelling demonstrators "a bunch of vandals," enormous crowds defied threats of the death penalty to gather across the country on Saturday, January 10, in what is seen as the largest challenge to his rule.
Iran is under a severe internet blackout, applied since January 8, which also reportedly affects international phone calls. This has made verifying events from abroad extremely difficult. Despite the blackout, verified videos have emerged showing protesters clashing with security forces in Tehran's Gisha district and the city of Mashhad. Images also show a huge fire at a government building in Karaj, near Tehran.
The situation on the ground is dire. Hospitals are described as facing a "completely chaotic" situation, overwhelmed with dead and injured patients. An Iranian social worker who attended a protest in Tehran on Friday told CNN it turned into a "nightmare" when security forces began their attack. "Bullets, who knows, tear gas, whatever you can think of, they would fire them. And it was very terrifying," she said.
The Iranian government has not offered any official overall casualty figures. Meanwhile, the regime has threatened to attack Israel and US bases if former US President Donald Trump launches strikes over its brutal crackdown on protesters.
