Behnam Amirafshari: birthday of Fardis's fallen protester marked at his grave

The family and friends of Behnam Amirafshari, a fallen protester of the January uprising, marked his 41st birthday at his grave. Prince Reza Pahlavi's media office released a short video of the gathering on Wednesday 28 October 2026.

According to the Prince's office, Behnam Amirafshari was 40 and the father of two. He was wounded by gunfire from the Islamic Republic's security forces in Fardis, Alborz province, on 8 January 2026 and died more than two months later, on 19 March. In its message the Prince's office wrote: "Behnam Amirafshari's name will not be forgotten. Justice will be served."

Fardis on 8 and 9 January

Fardis was one of the cities that saw the worst violence at the height of the January uprising. An eyewitness, whose name has been withheld for his safety, has said that IRGC and special unit forces fired live ammunition at protesters from several directions on the night of 9 January, and that many people were killed on Ahari Street. According to the same witness, some families were told to sign a pledge describing their loved ones as Basij members before the bodies would be handed over. The exact number of those killed in Fardis is still unknown.

In most documented accounts, 8 and 9 January were the bloodiest days of the uprising. In recent months the families of the fallen have kept their memory alive by holding birthdays and anniversaries at their graves, gatherings that have repeatedly faced pressure and summonses from the security forces. DIAR has previously published the stories of Ahmad Khosravani, a fallen student of Sharif University and Ehsan Abedini, killed on Sattarkhan Street in Tehran.

The Prince's office and the memory of the fallen

In the months since the uprising, Prince Reza Pahlavi's media office has regularly published the names and stories of the fallen and stressed the pursuit of justice for them. This week Prince Reza Pahlavi, in a video message, called on all Iranians to join the national cooperation campaign to save Iran.

Behnam Amirafshari, a father of two, was shot by the Islamic Republic's forces in Fardis on 8 January and died on 19 March.