Iranian activist Masih Alinejad urges Trump to act for Iran protesters

Iran International said it could verify the death of another protester in the town of Lordegan, identifying the victim as 22-year-old Ahmad Jalil, who was killed by direct gunfire from Iranian security forces during demonstrations on Thursday.

Jalil had previously taken part in protests during the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement and was working as a ride-hailing driver, struggling financially, a relative told Iran International.

Sources close to the family said agents from the intelligence arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps later summoned Jalil’s relatives to the governor’s office, threatening not to release his body unless they gave a coerced interview blaming protesters for his death.

Sources also said authorities have attempted to pressure and financially coerce families of those killed in recent protests, in an effort to suppress accountability and control public narratives around the deaths.

Iranians would not allow foreign intervention in addressing the country’s problems, Esmaeil Baghaei, the Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said responding to a warning by US President Donald Trump over the protests.

“Iranians, through dialogue and interaction with one another to resolve their problems, will not permit any form of foreign interference,” Baghaei wrote in a post on X as demonstrations entered its sixth consecutive day.

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Footage shared with Iran International shows mourners at the funeral of Amirhessam Khodayarifard, a protester killed in Kuhdasht, forcing government forces to flee the ceremony.

Basij and other security personnel were initially deployed around the site, according to a witness who described the video. After the body was handed over to the family, mourners chased them away with stones and chants, forcing members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Basij to retreat from the area.

Iranians have resisted the Islamic Republic for decades, actress Golshifteh Farahani said, describing the country as “on fire once again” amid renewed unrest.

“The people of Iran have resisted the Islamic Republic since 1979. 46 years of resistance. Thousands killed, tortured, executed,” Farahani wrote in a post on Instagram on Friday.

The damage inflicted on Iran’s human and cultural resources, she said, was so severe that “no regime could destroy Iran like this even on purpose.”

Iranians, Farahani said, are exhausted by “injustice, corruption, and an economy that crushes them,” while oligarchs grow richer and foreign powers exploit the crisis. “My heart beats with the people of Iran,” she wrote.

The father of Amir-Hessam Khodayarifard, a young protester killed in the city of Kuhdasht in Iran’s Lorestan province, said at his son’s funeral that Amir-Hessam was not a member of the Basij militia.

Speaking during the burial ceremony, he rejected any suggestion that his son was affiliated with pro-government forces.

Attendees at the funeral chanted slogans including “I will kill the one who killed my brother,” and “This is the final battle, Pahlavi will return,” reflecting the anger and defiance surrounding the killing.

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