As families of victims and ordinary people mark the 4th anniversary of the brutal crackdown on demonstrations in Iran, a mother of slain protestor has spoken out.

In November 2019, week-long protests began over a sudden fuel price increase. The government shut down the internet and carried out one of the most brutal crackdowns against protesters killing 1,500 people in less than a week.

Mahboubeh Ramezani, the mother of Pezhman Gholipour, an 18-year-old protester who was killed in November 2019 has written with the publication of videos from his funeral.

“I know they killed you with a bullet, yes, my dear, they shot you in the middle of your heart.”

“Two people shot at you, you realized quickly, you understood what injustice is.”

“My Pezhman said stop being a slave and went away so that he wouldn't be enslaved,” said Ramezani.

Mahboubeh Ramezani was arrested in 2022 along with several other relatives of victims of the 2019 crackdown. She was sentenced to 100 lashes in absentia and was held in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison.

The Revolutionary Guard’s paramilitary forces, the Basij, that was deployed to suppress the demonstrations labeled the 2019 protests as "An all-out war against the regime and the Islamic revolution." The regime's response was ruthless massacre, a method it continued to employ in subsequent nationwide protests, including those sparked by public anger with the Morality Police, after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest for “improper hijab” in September 2022.