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• 1 media/Image.jpeg media/Image.jpeg 2024-09-30T09:38:20-07:00 Nika Shakarami 25 16-year-old Nika Shakarami's death at the hands of Iranian police image_header 2024-12-09T06:39:47-08:00 Nika Shakarami
  
  On the 20^th of September in 2022, 16-year-old Nika Shakarami went missing during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests. Her body would be found nine days later. A month after her death the government of Iran would deny any connection of her death with the protests, and claimed she had died by suicide, jumping off a building. CCTV footage was shown of a masked person they claimed to be Nika entering an apartment building, but her mother stated that she could not confirm the person in the footage was Nika at all. Only days before had the first protests of Woman, Life, Freedom, broken out in anguish of the death of Mahsa Jina Amini.
  
                    In a BBC investigation, leaked hidden documents were found which methodically go through the true history of her last moments.
  
                    Early in the evening of the 20^th of September, the day she went missing, Nika was filmed near Laleh Park in the city of Tehran. She stands atop an upside down garbage can, waving her aflame headscarf in her hand in the face of riot police and chants of “death to dictator” around her. She lowers herself again to grab the headscarf of a friend, which she will also set ablaze. Other videos have been found showing her at the forefront of the protests, chanting and throwing rocks.
  
  
   https://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/interactive/uploads/20221025-nikadesktop03.mp4
  
   What she didn’t know was that monitoring these protests was multiple undercover IRGC teams. One team, referred to by the BBC as ‘Team 12’ correctly suspected her of leadership. The members of Team 12, reportedly, are actually members of Iranian paramilitary group Hezbollah (unrelated to the Lebanese group by the same name). Hezbollah members are often utilized by the IRGC but tend to operate less legally , and are not under IRGC control enough to be punished for less than legal actions. One member joined the protest to confirm their suspicions, and then called in the rest of the Team to arrest her, at which point Nika fled. Just before midnight, the last message anyone received from her was a call to her friend that she was being chased by police. One eyewitness saw her taken in to custody by a group of plainclothes officers into an unmarked freezer van. That night, her telegram and Instagram would be deleted as well.
  
  
                    According to reports, Nika was placed in the rear compartment with Team 12 members Arash Kalhor, Sadegh Monjazy, and Behrooz Sadeghy, their leader Morteza Jalil driving. The team then claims they tried to find a detention center or police camp to hold her, but Nika was swearing, shouting, and struggling, and they feared she would incite other detainees. To quiet her, Kalhor gagged her with socks while Monjazy sat atop her to keep her still. It is then that Kalhor states Monjazy put his hand into Nika’s trousers. Monjazy denied this, but stated he did become aroused by sitting on her and touched her butt. Regardless, Nika reacted by kicking and fighting to the best of her ability, and in response the three team members in the back with her beat her and tasered her to death.
  
  Team leader Jalil, realizing that she had died from the beating, called a senior IRGC officer referred to as ‘Naeem 16” who told him to dump her body, and she was left under Tehran’s Yadegar-e-Imam highway. 
  
  Nika’s initial death report supports this leaked report, stating that she died of multiple blows from three different batons, and showing signs of being tasered and assaulted before death. None of the men responsible for her death have seen any consequences, and IRGC officer Naeem 16 was simply given a written reprimand.
  
  Today, two years after the initial Woman, Life, Freedom movement, Nika is remembered not only for the initially unclear circumstances of her death, but for her bravery and strength, leading protests and standing strong in the face of the overwhelming force of the Iranian government. However, more than a martyr figure, it is important to remember that Nika Shakarami was just a young girl of sixteen. Protesting for her right to choose how she dresses should not have resulted in her death, especially not in such a violent way. 
  
  
  One well-known video shared by her family shows Nika singing the song ‘Soltan-e Galbha’ onstage, laughing at her own silliness. Not only was she a brave young protestor, she was someone who loved and lived, and whose life was cut short by those that were supposed to protect her. Nika’s family continues to seek justice for her.
  
  
  
  https://eaworldview.com/2024/05/shakarami-iran-security-forces-sexually-assaulted-killed-teen/
  
  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68840881
  
  https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/27/middleeast/iran-nika-shahkarami-investigation-intl-cmd/index.html
  
  https://www.rferl.org/a/bbc-documents-iranian-forces-teen-killed-custody/32928048.html
  
  - KC