Murder, body theft, and secret burial: the story of a state crime

The Islamic Republic's security crimes, in addition to brutal repression and looting, have added to their crimes the pain of families seeking to secretly bury the bodies of their loved ones.

In the midst of the nationwide protests in Iran, which began in late December 2025 and has become one of the bloodiest periods of repression of protesters in recent decades, the death of "Rubina Aminian," a 23-year-old Kurdish girl and fashion design student in Tehran, has presented a symbolic and horrific image of "government oppression and the fragmentation of lives."

According to multiple reports, including the Associated Press and human rights organizations, Rubina's family believes that she was killed by Islamic Republic security forces with a direct shot to the back of the head, and that this was just the beginning of the nightmare.

When Rubina's mother learned of her daughter's death through a call from her friends on January 8, 2026, she had to go through thousands of bloody corpses in morgues and warehouses, opening every body bag to find her daughter.

He has said of those seemingly endless moments, as he searched among the beautiful, lifeless faces to recognize Rubina, a scene that defies any human description.

The family reportedly faced unimaginable terror after the body was found. The security forces were so powerful that they could not simply bury the body. Dozens of other families have also faced reports of intelligence agents demanding money in exchange for the return of their loved ones’ bodies, a practice that the Iran Center for Human Rights has described as “a well-known and common practice” to intimidate families and prevent public mourning.

Because of this, Rubina's family was practically forced to remove their daughter's body from the morgue. "When Rubina's mother, Amine, found Rubina's body, her husband, daughter, and son joined her and, with each other's help, they hurriedly pulled the body out," said Rubina's uncle, Minoui, from Oslo. "In fact, he stole his own daughter's body and ended up having to bury it in an unmarked hole by the side of the road, lest the security forces come back and take Rubina's body and demand money from them in exchange for returning it, adding to their suffering," Minoui said.

After Rubina's death, her mother called her relatives abroad to tell them about the protests. She was in Kermanshah when Rubina was killed and left for Tehran at midnight after hearing the news of Rubina's death from her friends. In her call, she described how she unzipped the body bags one by one to find Rubina.

"Ala Noori," Aunt Rubina from Oslo, also said about this: "She was going through all those beautiful faces, looking for her daughter, and what is terrible for me is imagining the feelings my sister must have had while searching for her child."

Another similar example, whose name and identity have been withheld, shows that this family was also forced to quickly remove their child's body from the scene and bury him in the garden of their home's yard as soon as their child was killed in the protests, when their child was shot and died in front of their family's eyes, lest security forces steal their child's body.

The accounts of Rubina and the person whose identity has been withheld are not the only ones that have occurred, and there may be many more similar accounts. This narrative is a reflection of the broader violence by the Iranian government against civil society. According to reports and estimates from human rights organizations, thousands of people have been killed during the recent protests, but the Iranian government has refused to provide independent and reliable statistics.

According to Amnesty International, many other families are searching for their loved ones in morgues filled with bodies of the dead, piled high in trucks, cargo containers and warehouses.

The Iranian Human Rights Organization and other international organizations have also emphasized that many victims like Rubina, unarmed and on the path of peaceful protests, especially youth, women, and students, have been targeted in direct attacks by security forces.

In many other similar cases, families have reported visiting morgues overflowing with bodies to find their loved ones, and upon receiving their loved ones' bodies, their mourning and burial ceremonies have been banned or severely restricted by authorities, often forced to choose between a secret burial in the desert or risking arrest and increased harassment by security forces.

It is clear that this crisis is more than a personal tragedy; this painful testimony is a symbol of a policy of brutal repression and fundamental violation of human rights that deprives families not only of the right to life, but also of the right to dignity in death and humane mourning.

The death of Rubina Aminian and the manner of her burial are not just a report of an event, but a reflection of the systematic violence, censorship, intimidation, and disrespect for human life that has turned Iran's recent protests into an unprecedented point in the history of urban repression.

This incident reminds us that when governments are able to control even the bodies of the dead, fundamental freedoms and social justice are at greater risk, and the world must hear the voices of families who were forced to steal and bury the bodies of their loved ones before many more are added to history.