Pouya Bakhtiari was an engineer killed in the November 2019 fuel-price protests, the bloodiest Iranian state crackdown since 1988. His family's continued public mourning made him one of the named faces of an otherwise uncounted massacre.
He was shot on Mehr Villa Boulevard in Karaj. The fuel-price hike had triggered protests across more than 100 cities. Internet was cut nationwide for about a week, which let the state shoot in the dark. The 1,500+ death toll surfaced only weeks later through Reuters reporting.
His parents refused to disappear. Manouchehr Bakhtiari has served prison time specifically for refusing to stay quiet about his son's killing. The fact that organizing a memorial is criminalized in Iran is itself part of the entry.
Aban 98 is the missing chapter in the Anglophone narrative of recent Iranian protest. Pouya's name is one of the few that made it through the internet blackout intact.
What it is
Pouya Bakhtiari (پویا بختیاری) was a 27-year-old electrical engineer killed in Karaj on 16 November 2019 during the nationwide fuel-price protests known in Persian as aban 98 (Aban 1398). He was shot in the head on Mehr Villa Boulevard. Amnesty International placed the overall death toll for the November 2019 crackdown at over 300; Reuters later reported the figure exceeded 1,500. Pouya’s parents, Manouchehr Bakhtiari and Nahid Shirpisheh, refused state pressure to bury him quietly. They were repeatedly arrested in the years that followed for organizing memorials at his graveside in Behesht-e Sakineh cemetery.
Sources
- Amnesty International, Iran November 2019 crackdown
- Reuters Special Report, Iran 2019 protest death toll (December 2019)
- Human Rights Watch, Iran November 2019 anniversary report (May 2020)
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