A young Iranian student has been identified as one of the victims of the recent violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in Iran, with a human rights group reporting she was shot in the head at close range.
A Fatal Shot from Behind
Rubina Aminian, a 23-year-old textile and fashion design student at Shariati College in Tehran, was killed on Thursday. According to the Norway-based organisation Iran Human Rights, she was struck by a bullet from behind after leaving her college to join a protest. The group stated that eyewitness accounts confirmed she was shot from close range, with the projectile hitting her head.
Aminian was a Kurdish woman from Marivan. Her family, who reside in Kermanshah in western Iran, had to travel to the capital to identify her body. They searched among what the rights group described as "the bodies of hundreds of young people" before finding her.
A Family Forced into a Secret Burial
The ordeal for Aminian's family did not end with retrieving her body. Upon returning to Kermanshah, they discovered that intelligence forces had surrounded their home and were prohibiting them from holding a funeral. Under pressure, the family was forced to bury her along the road between Kermanshah and the nearby city of Kamyaran.
Speaking to CNN, her uncle, Nezar Minouei, remembered Rubina as a strong and courageous young woman. "She was not someone you could control and make decisions for," he said. "She fought for things she knew were right and fought hard. She was thirsty for freedom, thirsty for women’s rights, her rights."
A Soaring National Death Toll
Aminian's death is one of many in a wave of unrest that has swept Iran. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has provided a stark estimate of the nationwide impact, suggesting at least 538 people have been killed in the violence surrounding the demonstrations.
This figure includes an estimated 490 protesters. The group also reported that more than 10,600 individuals have been arrested in connection with the protests. The Iranian government has issued warnings to other nations, including the United States, against interfering as the domestic situation remains highly volatile.
