A sculptor, a promising teenage footballer and a hairdresser with tens of thousands of followers on Instagram are among at least 2,000 people killed in two weeks of protests in Iran.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which relies on supporters in Iran to cross-check information and has been accurate in previous bouts of unrest, said 1,847 of the dead over the last two weeks were protesters, while 135 were affiliated with the government.
An Iranian official gave similar figures to the Reuters news agency.
Read more: What we know about the number of dead
The demonstrations started as an expression of grievance over the Islamic Republic’s weakened economy and have evolved into a legitimate threat to the country’s theocracy, reaching levels of violence not seen in Iran for decades.
Authorities severed internet communications amid an intense crackdown on unrest, making it harder for information on the number of people who have been killed to trickle out.
Iran latest: Follow live updates
However, the Sky News Data & Forensics team has collected the names of almost 100 people killed in the riots and has been able to verify the identities of at least 75 of those, using a mix of local media reports, social media and open-source information.
You can tap through the full list of those 75 people here, and read on for the stories of some of those killed in the protests.
The first woman reported killed
Akram Pirgazi, a 40-year-old mother of two, was the first woman reported to have been killed in the protests.
She was hit by gunfire in Neyshabur in the country’s northeast and taken to hospital on 7 January, but died later that day.
The sculptor and father of two
In the city of Mashhad, in the same province, 50-year-old sculptor Mehdi Salahshour was shot by government forces on 8 January, according to the Norway-based human rights organisation Hengaw.
The father of two was active in Iran’s arts and culture scene and served as an honorary member of the Visual Arts Development Institute.
He had taken part in nearly 20 exhibitions showcasing his work and had held workshops at the University of Tehran, according to his social media profiles.
The director and filmmaker
A day later, Javad Ganji, a 39-year-old director and filmmaker, was shot dead during protests in Tehran, Hengaw reported.
He had worked as an assistant director and production planner on several projects in cinema and TV for several years.
The hairdresser with a large social media following
Shayan Asadollahi, a 28-year-old hairdresser, was reportedly killed by government forces in the city of Azna in Lorestan province on 1 January.
He had shared hairstyling videos with more than 50,000 followers on Instagram.
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The trainee lawyer
On the same day, Ahmadreza Amani, a 28-year-old trainee lawyer, was reportedly rushed to hospital after being shot in the chest during street protests in Azna, but died shortly after arrival, according to the London-based Iran International news outlet.
It said the head of the Yazd Bar Association, for which Mr Amani had been an intern, said he had written to the head of the judiciary calling for a thorough investigation into his death.
The avid footballer
Young people have made up a large proportion of the protesters, with the average age of those killed that we have verified being around 27.
Rebin Moradi, a 17-year-old Kurdish student, was reportedly killed in Tehran on 8 January. He was a promising young footballer who was a member of the Tehran Youth Premier Football League and played with the Saipa Club.
His social media features pictures and videos from several years ago, illustrating his passion for the sport. He was also a swimmer and a wrestler, according to the Hengaw human rights organisation.
After his death, a post on his Instagram asked: “Who had the heart to kill you?”
In addition to those killed, more than 10,700 people have been detained during the two weeks of protests, according to HRANA.
As protests continue across Iran, the number of people killed is expected to rise. Sky News’ Data & Forensics team will continue to verify details of those killed while risking their lives protesting against the Iranian regime.
The Data x Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
