The human rights organization Karun reported that Zolfaghar Sharifi, a seven-year-old child, was killed after Iranian military forces opened direct fire on the family's vehicle in Hoveyzeh. His sister was also seriously injured in the shooting.
According to the report, the Sharifi family’s car was passing through a newly established checkpoint on the evening of Friday, October 25, when security forces suddenly opened fire without any warning or order to stop. The bullets struck the child directly, causing his immediate death.
Sources stated that after the incident, security forces surrounded the area and warned the family not to speak to the media.
In Iran, national minorities such as Kurds, Baloch, Arabs, Turkmens, and Azeris have long faced systematic discrimination and repression. Targeting civilians and random shootings have become a common practice, and these communities have no real possibility to seek justice or file complaints.
The repression of national minorities in Iran manifests in severe restrictions on mother-tongue education, economic deprivation and underdevelopment, heavy military presence, arbitrary arrests of cultural and civil activists, and violent crackdowns on any form of public demand or protest.
In many cases, protests by national minorities are crushed under the accusation of “acting against national security,” while state-controlled media censor their narratives. Human rights organizations have repeatedly warned that by continuing these policies, the Iranian government is not only violating the cultural and political rights of these nations but is also militarizing identity-based demands and creating a permanent state of tension in these regions.
