In Tehran, winter drifts softly across wide avenues and narrow alleyways alike. The city moves, as it always has, with a careful balance between routine and restraint. Yet beneath the steady rhythm, a quieter reckoning is taking place, written not in slogans or chants, but in names.
The Iranian government has released an official list of individuals it says were killed during the wave of nationwide protests that erupted in late 2025. Nearly three thousand names now sit on a public registry, presented as a verified accounting of lives lost during months of unrest that swept across cities and provincial towns.
For families who have waited in uncertainty, the list offers something fragile: recognition. For others, it raises more questions than it answers.
Authorities describe the compilation as the product of forensic records, provincial reports, and security assessments. Alongside the list, officials have opened a portal allowing relatives to submit names they believe are missing, a gesture framed as an effort to correct omissions and establish administrative clarity.
Yet outside official channels, independent human rights groups and activist networks have long documented a higher death toll. Their records, built from witness testimony, hospital data, burial records, and open-source evidence, suggest that thousands more may have died than the state acknowledges.
The gap between these numbers is not merely statistical. It reflects two different ways of telling a story.
In the government’s account, many of those killed are described as bystanders, security personnel, or individuals caught in chaotic circumstances. In the accounts of activists, the majority are civilians shot during demonstrations, detained and later found dead, or killed during security raids.
Both narratives exist in parallel, rarely touching.
Some families say they searched hospitals and morgues for weeks, only to find no trace of their loved ones in official systems. Others report being warned not to speak publicly about how their relatives died. In this environment, even the act of naming becomes political.
The protests themselves began amid economic strain and long-simmering anger over governance, corruption, and social restrictions. What started as localized demonstrations quickly spread, forming one of the most sustained challenges to Iran’s leadership in years. The state responded with mass arrests, internet restrictions, and heavy deployment of security forces.
The release of the list arrives at a moment when Iran’s new administration is attempting to project an image of transparency and national reconciliation. Officials have described the publication as unprecedented, a step toward acknowledging loss rather than denying it.
But acknowledgment, many argue, is not the same as accountability.
Who fired the shots? Who gave the orders? Who will be held responsible?
These questions remain unanswered.
In Iranian culture, the dead are not meant to vanish into anonymity. Names are spoken, written, carried forward through generations. The publication of thousands of them, even in an imperfect ledger, confirms what many already knew: the scale of loss is vast.
Yet absence still haunts the margins of the document. Every missing name represents a family still waiting, a story unfinished.
Lists can create the appearance of closure. They suggest a finality that real grief rarely provides.
And so, as winter light fades across Tehran’s rooftops, the country finds itself suspended between counting and knowing, between record and truth. The names that have surfaced matter. But so do the ones that have not.
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Sources Al Jazeera Reuters Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Iran International HRANA