This article contains scenes that may be somewhat uncomfortable to view.
Samira started by saying that in the past, she was a person who was not very interested in politics.
He told BBC Panorama that he "worked as a salesman in Iran, selling cosmetics."
But everything changed the day her only daughter was shot dead by Iranian security forces right in front of her eyes.
Her daughter Sevda, then 16, was participating in protests against the oppressive regime that swept across Iran earlier this year. This was before the United States and Israel launched a large-scale airstrike that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
And it is said that her sadness turned into anger as she faced Iranian authorities who, rather than helping her find her daughter's body, interfered with it.
“Finding Sevda’s body was not the end, all the harassment they inflicted was just the beginning.”
image copyrightSisu Pictures Ltd
Samira made a dramatic escape from Iran on foot across rugged mountainous terrain.
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Currently living in hiding abroad, she describes herself as "a one-woman army fighting against the regime."
Fighting for justice and holding those responsible after his daughter's death, he is committed to identifying the security forces members and associates suspected of opening fire during protests and causing deaths.
“They will drive me to the brink of death and eventually try to kill me, but it won’t be easy to find me,” Samira said, emphasizing that “there is no going back to normal. There is no turning back now.”
Samira is one of several Iranians interviewed by the BBC since the beginning of this year. Among them, those interviewed who are still in Iran but want to speak out even at the risk of harm, confessed that it has become increasingly difficult to have hope after large-scale protests were brutally suppressed.
The Iranian Embassy in the UK claimed to Panorama that foreign powers, including the United States, intercepted peaceful and legitimate protests, incited violence, and threatened public safety by providing weapons and dangerous equipment.
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Daughter Sevda died on January 9 while participating with Samira in the large-scale protests that began in December on the outskirts of Tehran, the capital. The protests, which began with economic dissatisfaction, later expanded into calls for an end to the current Islamic Republic of Iran.
Unlike Samira, Sevda is said to have been very interested in politics. When Sevda was alive, he admired two young women. Mahsa Amini, who died after being detained on suspicion of violating the mandatory hijab, sparking large-scale protests, and Nikah Shakalami, who died during protests against Iran's strict Islamic dress code for women.
“My daughter always remembered them and always wanted to walk their path (of resistance),” he said.
The day before Sevda was murdered, an unusually large number of protesters took to the streets. Samira said that she and her daughter also took to the streets in response to the call to participate in the protest by Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Iran and currently in exile abroad.
Then, the explanation is, “the security forces lost control.”
Samira claimed that the Iranian government became scared as the number of protesters increased, and an order to kill was issued the next day. But at the time, I thought it was just a threat meant to scare people.
“(The authorities) told so many lies … I never imagined a massacre of that scale would occur.”
And President Donald Trump's promise to support the protesters is said to have provided relief.
President Trump told American media on January 8, "I made it clear to (the Iranian regime) that if they start killing people during the protests, as they often do... we will punish them very strongly."
However, on the 9th, the number of people participating in the protest seemed to have decreased.
Samira remembered that her daughter also seemed to have some sense of danger. She took off the earrings she usually wore and gave them to her grandmother, and gave her cell phone password to her mother, Samira.
The mother and daughter joined other protesters, and Sevda climbed onto a trash can and began shouting slogans.
“I think there were more security forces than protesters,” Samira said, adding, “I don’t know how they were able to gather so many … Basijis and IRGC members in one day.”
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is an organization that protects the Islamic system, and the Basiji branch of the IRGC is a voluntary paramilitary organization.
“A sniper shot from the roof of the building to our right. The bullet must have come from the roof. The bullet went through my daughter’s heart.”
“I couldn’t even scream. I just stared blankly at my daughter lying there. Blood was pouring from her mouth and nose, and I couldn’t believe what was happening. I couldn’t believe that my daughter was dying. Her eyes were still looking at me.”
Samira managed to take Sevda to the hospital and was told that she was undergoing surgery, but when the door opened a few moments later, she saw her daughter in a body bag.
And then someone took Sevda's body. It took several days for Samira to find her daughter again. Like many others searching for family members, I ended up in one of the largest morgues in Tehran.
“Teenagers, so many young girls and boys lost their lives,” Samira recalled through tears.
“Every time I opened the zipper (of the body bag), it felt like my breath stopped. I had never seen so many dead bodies. But I couldn’t give up.”
And I finally found my daughter.
“Three bodies were piled on top of Sevda. They were found that way.”
Iranian authorities acknowledge that more than 3,000 people died during the protests, but claim that some of those killed were security forces. However, the human rights organization HRANA estimates that the death toll is over 7,000, most of them protestors.
Samira says finding Sevda's body was just the beginning of a long fight against the authorities.
They tried to take her body away for burial, but authorities first demanded they acknowledge their claim that "terrorists", not security forces, were responsible for her daughter's death.
“They forced this on January 8-9 to cover up the atrocities they committed and to hide how many people they killed. They tried to silence families by forcing them to say that their loved ones were killed by Israeli or American terrorists.”
It is said that even after the funeral, Samira was banned from visiting the cemetery or even erecting a tombstone.
The authorities' harassment did not end here. A few days before the 40th anniversary of the death, which holds great significance in Iranian culture, Samira received a summons from the regional office of the Ministry of Intelligence.
“They told me, ‘Interview us and tell us that your daughter was a Basijah and was killed by protesters. We will recognize your daughter as a martyr and in return you will get privileges, a house and whatever you want.’”
Samira believes the authorities made this suggestion out of fear. This is because as soon as the internet connection in Iran was restored, the news of her daughter's death was reported to an Iranian media outlet based in London.
“They were scared that I was communicating with outside networks or people outside of Iran.”
To avoid being interviewed by authorities, Samira fled Iran as soon as the 40-day memorial service ended.
“I didn’t want to trade in exchange for my child’s blood.”
After escaping from Iran with help, he crossed rivers and mountains to find a safe place.
She even filmed herself escaping, and Samira's anger is clearly visible in the video.
While walking down a mountain path flanked by deep and rugged canyons, Samira mutters to the camera, “You trash government, you bastards, they have tormented me so much.”
Meanwhile, Samira continued to give interviews to foreign media abroad, and as a result, she was reportedly indicted in absentia on several charges, including 'Moharebe', in Iran. Moharever is treason against God and can be punishable by death.
Relatives and friends remaining in Iran held a vigil to mark Sevda's 17th birthday, and Samira watched via live video from her exile.
“Then the video suddenly stopped,” he recalled.
He later learned that authorities had raided the gathering and that some of his family and friends had been arrested by the IRGC.
And it is said that the authorities even threatened the family that if they continued to gather at Sevda's grave, they would remove the body and move it to another location.
Samira is now publishing online the names of Iranian security forces members and officials she believes are responsible for fatal shootings during protests in which she and Sevda participated on January 8 and 9.
“I raise these names with the hope that justice will be served for everyone,” he said, adding, “They killed so many young people. I hope they will be identified and brought to justice.”
Meanwhile, when one of the men Samira named online was later found dead, a regime supporter claimed Samira was behind the incident and offered a $5,000 reward for information on Samira's whereabouts. Iranian state media later reported that nine people had been arrested in connection with the death.
Despite these risks, Samira says she will not remain silent.
“Every day and every moment I spend without Sevda is so difficult. I am a mother who has lost her heart, her reason for being, her life…”
“But the fact that my daughter was no longer with me brought me back to life… It made me celebrate her life and think about the path she took…”
“All the bodies I saw, all the body bags I opened to find Sevda, all this led me to fight the Islamic Republic until my last breath.”
