Farzin Lotfi

Farzin Lotfi (August 15, 1996 – September 21, 2022)

Farzin Lotfi was born on August 15, 1996, in Rezvanshahr, Gilan. He grew up in a hardworking family whose life was closely tied to farming, labor, and perseverance. His parents raised him through the income they earned from agriculture, enduring many hardships to provide him with a better life. From a young age, Farzin understood the meaning of his family’s struggles and never considered himself separate from their difficulties.
Among his family members, Farzin is remembered as a kind, cheerful, and warm-hearted young man—someone whose presence brought life and warmth into the home. He was not concerned only with his own life. Whenever he had the opportunity, he stood beside his parents and helped them.
During the rice-planting season, he worked alongside his family in the fields. For Farzin, work was not merely a way of making a living; it was part of the responsibility he felt toward his parents, who had spent years working hard to raise him.
To earn a living and help support his family, Farzin worked as a seaman aboard ships. Whenever he returned home, he also worked at a local car wash so that he could ease some of the burden on his mother and father. His life moved between the sea, work, family, and the small town where he had grown up.
But the autumn of 2022 changed the course of his life forever.
As nationwide protests spread across Iran, Farzin joined the demonstrators. He was a young man who was deeply dissatisfied with the conditions governing his country and, alongside his friends—including Sasan Ghorbani—took part in the protests.
During the final days of September 2022, Rezvanshahr, like many other cities across Iran, witnessed protesters taking to the streets. Farzin was among those who were present alongside his friends and other demonstrators.
According to accounts from his family and those close to him, Farzin was shot by government forces in front of the Rezvanshahr police station, with bullets striking his heart. Published accounts give different dates for his death—September 20 and September 21, 2022—but they agree on the essential fact: Farzin lost his life in the Rezvanshahr protests after being directly shot.
A young man who, only days earlier, had been laughing among his family and friends suddenly never came home again.
Farzin was only 25 years old when he lost his life.
His death left a profound wound in the family that had raised him through years of hardship and labor. His parents, who had spent years working the land and struggling to give their son a future, now had to face the unbearable emptiness of his absence.
One of Farzin’s relatives later wrote about how he would help his parents even during the rice-planting season—a son who always tried to do his part and share in the responsibilities of family life. The same relative wrote about his mother, whose nights after his death were filled with grief and mourning.
Farzin’s death did not bring an end to the pressure on his family. According to published accounts, members of the family were threatened by security forces and warned that they would be arrested if they gave interviews or spoke publicly about their son.
These threats, combined with the unbearable grief of losing her child, placed the family under immense emotional pressure. After the funeral, while the family was still facing pressure from security forces, Farzin’s mother attempted to take her own life. She survived after being transferred to a hospital and receiving medical treatment.
Farzin’s body was buried in Rezvanshahr on October 1, 2022—the same town where he had been born, grown up, worked, and ultimately lost his life in its streets.
Today, Farzin’s memory represents more than the memory of a young man who was taken from his family. To those who knew him, he was someone who spent much of his life working and caring for his family, and who, during the final days of his life, took to the streets to protest what he believed to be injustice and oppression.
Months and years may pass, but for a mother who has lost her child, time does not always move forward. Some days remain frozen in the moment when her child did not return home.
Farzin Lotfi—the son of a farming family from Rezvanshahr, a seaman, a worker who helped his family whenever he returned home, a kind and cheerful young man, and a protester who lost his life at the age of 25—remains alive in the memories of those who knew him.
And whenever his family, a friend, or a fellow citizen stands beside his grave, what remains most visible is the absence of a young man who could still have been beside his parents—in the rice fields, at the local car wash, at home, and among the familiar laughter of his family.
Yet, as those close to him have recounted, his story did not end with his death. His name and memory continue to live on among those who knew him and within a family that still carries the weight of his loss.