January's unfinished love stories: Lives severed by Iran protest killings

Matin Ghorbani’s wife, Mahsa Khanjani, embraces his body after he was shot dead during protests in Karaj on January 9.

Eight months after Iran's January protests, the partners left behind by some of those killed are recounting lives abruptly divided by gunfire – marriages measured in months or days, anniversaries spent at graves and final embraces they never knew were their last.

Their accounts preserve the intimate details of loss: the last phone call, kiss and touch, and plans for weddings and futures that never came.

A marriage cut short after 16 months

Shahrouz Mehrabi, a 36-year-old electrical engineer from Borujerd, was shot dead in Saveh on January 8, his wife Parvaneh's birthday.

The couple had struggled for years to build a life together. Their marriage lasted one year and four months.

Shahrouz Mehrabi and his wife, Parvaneh, on their wedding day. Mehrabi was shot dead on January 8, his wife's birthday, after one year and four months of marriage.

“We loved each other and went through so much to finally be together,” Parvaneh wrote.

She remembered Shahrouz as kind, in love with life and full of plans. His death left those plans unfinished and turned her birthday into the anniversary of his killing.

‘I wish I had held you longer’

Matin Ghorbani, a 23-year-old barista, was shot dead during protests in Karaj on January 9.

His wife, Mahsa Khanjani, later published a photograph of herself embracing Matin's body.

“Why does this have to be our last picture?” she wrote.

In a recent video, Mahsa described the months that followed: nights reaching morning without him and memories of a final phone call, embrace and kiss that seemed ordinary because she did not know they were farewells.

Matin Ghorbani and his wife, Mahsa Khanjani, before Ghorbani was shot dead during protests in Karaj on January 9.

“I wish I had known it was the last time,” she said. “I wish I had held you longer, looked at you longer. I wish I had recorded your voice more deeply in my mind.”

Meysam Ghaderi and his wife on their wedding day. Ghaderi was shot dead during protests in Karaj on January 8, just seven days after the couple married following an 11-year relationship.

Seven days of marriage

Meysam Ghaderi, 32, and his partner had been together for 11 years before finally marrying.

Seven days later, he was dead.

Meysam was shot in the neck during protests in Karaj on January 8, leaving a marriage that had taken more than a decade to reach barely a week old.

Elham Sadeghi marks her wedding anniversary beside a photograph of her husband, Mohsen Jabbarzadeh, after his death during Iran’s January protests.

A ninth anniversary without him

For Elham Sadeghi, another anniversary arrived this month without her husband, Mohsen Jabbarzadeh.

Mohsen, 41, who owned a currency exchange business, was killed during protests on Tehran’s Salsabil Street on January 9 after being shot with live ammunition.

His injuries were so severe that he died within minutes. At the hospital, his family was told the bullet had severed the main artery in his leg.

Marking what would have been their ninth wedding anniversary on September 12, Elham remembered how hard they had fought to build their life together.

“We went through so much to be together, we fought so hard,” she wrote. “My love, I love you forever.”

A first anniversary at his grave

Sadegh Ghorbani, 28, was shot in Shahr-e Qods near Tehran and died on January 10.

His wife, Atefeh Saei, spent their first wedding anniversary not beside him, but at his grave.

“Our first wedding anniversary; me without you, alone, frightened and in shock,” she wrote on Instagram.

In another post, Atefeh recalled touching her husband's cold body and fighting through a crowd to reach his coffin.

“I hate my hands; with these hands I touched your frozen body,” she wrote. “With these same hands, I made my way through the crowd to your coffin, held your lifeless feet and said: Don't be afraid. Go without worry, go in peace.”

Saei later described placing earth over her husband's body herself, fearful even during his burial that authorities might take his remains from the family.

Aida Heidari and her fiancé, Abolfazl Soleimani Al-Mouti, before his death during protests in Qazvin on January 9. Heidari died by suicide eight months later, around the time the couple had planned to marry.