Five years after Iran executed champion wrestler Navid Afkari, the Islamic Republic continues to silence athletes and protesters alike—making action against its repressive sports authorities imperative.
Afkari's death remains a searing reminder of Tehran's willingness to crush dissent, even when the world is watching.
As former wrestlers, we tried to raise his case at the highest levels. And US president Donald Trump took note—in what became the first known public effort by an American president to halt the execution of an athlete.
“Hearing that Iran is looking to execute a great and popular wrestling star, 27-year-old Navid Afkarai, whose sole act was an anti-government demonstration on the streets,” he posted on Twitter on Sep. 3, 2020.
“I would greatly appreciate if you would spare this young man’s life, and not execute him. Thank you!”
Afkari was convicted of killing a security guard during 2018 protests but said in an appeal that he had been tortured into a confession used against him in court and later broadcast on state television.
Spurned pleas
Trump’s message amplified Afkari’s plight, alongside appeals from UFC president Dana White, decorated Olympians, and thousands of athletes worldwide. Yet the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and United World Wrestling confined themselves to quiet, private appeals.
IOC president Thomas Bach later admitted he had made “direct personal appeals to the Supreme Leader and to the President of Iran” asking for mercy.
Those backchannel efforts failed and Afkari was hanged.
Two years later, on September 16, 2025, Mahsa Jina Amini died in morality police custody, igniting the Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement. Both Amini and Afkari became cause célèbres of those who oppose the theocracy.
Iranian athletes continue to pay a heavy price: karate champion Mohammad Mehdi Karami was executed in 2023, footballer Amir Reza Nasr-Azadani is serving a 26-year sentence, and swimmer Parham Parvari faces a possible death penalty.
Iran’s National Olympic Committee is run not by athletes but by loyalists to the Islamic Republic, including a former bodyguard to supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
International sport has long offered the rulers in Tehran prestige they deny their own people. Cutting that lifeline could matter more than another round of statements.
The IOC and federations should commit to automatic bans if athletes are executed for dissent. Washington and its allies can reinforce this with sanctions targeting sports and security officials complicit in abuses.
Admittedly, sanctions or suspensions carry a cost: innocent Iranian athletes risk losing their chance to compete internationally, and the authorities will use this to stoke nationalist anger.
But the alternative—allowing executions to pass without consequence—leaves the regime with impunity and athletes with no protection at all.
Clear, consistent penalties would make it harder for Tehran to treat sportsmen and women as expendable.
Afkari and Amini are remembered as symbols of courage. Honoring them today requires action, not silence.
Amini died under circumstances which remain unexplained shortly after her arrest on Sept. 16, 2022, sparking a wave of protests nationwide dubbed the Woman, Life, Freedom movement which was ultimately quashed with deadly force.
Shahinkar and her mother joined a Tehran protest on Oct. 15, in which security forces shot her in the face with non-lethal munitions, leaving her blind in one eye.
Now living in exile in the United States, she believes the movement has moved far beyond opposition to the hijab mandated by Tehran's theocracy toward demanding the total downfall of the ruling system.
“Our youth were not killed and people like me were not blinded — many in one eye, many in both eyes, many raped and tortured in prisons — just to settle for superficial reforms,” Shahinkar told Iran International.
Her comments come as tensions fester inside Iran. According to Iran Human Rights, authorities executed Mehran Bahramian, a protester arrested during the 2022 demonstrations, just weeks before the anniversary.
Repression continued
Thousands of people in Iran face the risk of execution amid what Amnesty International on Wednesday called a deepening execution crisis.
The rights group said more than 800 people had been executed in 2025 so far, nearly double the pace of last year, and warned that dozens of other detainees linked to the protests remain at imminent risk of execution following what it describes as unfair trials and forced confessions.
Shahinkar says families of those killed or arrested during the unrest with whom she remains in touch tell her about renewed harassment, saying they have received summonses by security services to discourage public commemorations.
The protests, Shahinkar said, sparked visible social change but she believes the state allows it as a form of controlled freedom.
'We want evil rule gone'
A top Tehran decision-making body in May ordered the parliament not to enforce a contentious law mandating stricter hijab regulations.
“We see women singing in the streets, people taking relative freedoms. But they allow a bit of space only to avoid triggering another protest, Shahinkar said.
"We don’t want small freedoms meant to silence people. We want the Islamic Republic gone — its evil removed from our country."
Iranian-American psychotherapist Azadeh Afsahi, who works with survivors of torture through her nonprofit Iran House, says she hears this same shift from many Iranians she counsels.
“The definition of justice is not available when we talk with survivors, because we don’t know when they will see accountability. But what stands out is their willingness to fight, even after everything," Afsahi told Iran International.
Shahinkar insists that only mass resistance will make a difference.
“The Islamic Republic won’t fall through kindness or dancing. It takes anger and massive numbers in the streets — more than 50% of society, not just 20 or 30.”
Struggle goes on
Despite the risks, she says fear no longer holds her back.
“At first, I was terrified when I saw security forces. But over time, the fear disappeared… Even with one eye, we can celebrate freedom.”
The anniversary of Amini’s death is being marked by vigils and demonstrations abroad, while inside Iran, rights groups say authorities have tightened restrictions on gatherings. The United States and several European countries have issued statements honoring Amini’s memory and calling for accountability.
For Shahinkar, however, symbolic gestures abroad are not enough; she maintains that the future depends on Iranians themselves realizing their strength and carrying the struggle beyond hijab into a demand for systemic change.
