Mohammad Iqbal Naibzehi

Mohammad Iqbal Naibzehi (September 30, 2006 – September 30, 2022)

Mohammad Iqbal Naibzehi was a 16-year-old (reported as 18 in some sources) Iranian teenager from Zahedan, born into a deprived family without official identification documents. From an early age, he experienced poverty and hardship. At around nine years old, he began working in construction to support his family. His modest income was used to help provide for his elderly parents, including his father, who suffered from leukemia. Despite these difficult circumstances, Mohammad Iqbal had simple aspirations—he hoped to save enough money to buy a smartphone and create an Instagram account.
He was known among relatives and friends for his kindness and warm personality. Despite the hardships he faced, he tried to conceal his struggles behind a smile so as not to burden his family.
On Friday, September 30, 2022, during widespread protests in Zahedan—sparked by reports of the assault of a بلوچ teenage girl and the death of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody—Mohammad Iqbal went to attend Friday prayers at the Makki Mosque prayer site. Lacking money for transportation, he walked more than 12 kilometers to reach the mosque.
According to his family, while worshippers were praying, security and military forces opened fire on the crowd. His brother reports that Mohammad Iqbal was inside the prayer area, holding his prayer mat, when he was struck by a bullet that hit his heart, killing him instantly.
After hearing about the shooting, his family went to the hospital in search of him, where they encountered a large number of injured people and victims. Eventually, they were informed that his body was at the Makki Mosque. The family retrieved his body but, out of fear it might be taken from them, chose not to place it in a morgue. Instead, they kept it at home until burial.
This incident, later referred to as “Bloody Friday of Zahedan,” resulted in the deaths of dozens of people, including several children and teenagers. Some sources estimate that more than 96 individuals were killed.
State-affiliated media presented a different account, claiming that security forces responded to an armed attack on a police station. However, Mohammad Iqbal’s family rejected this narrative, emphasizing that he was an unarmed teenage laborer attending prayers and was shot without involvement in any confrontation.
His mother recalled his final moments before leaving home: he wore clean clothes, took his green prayer mat, and left to attend Friday prayers—never to return. She has called for justice and accountability for those responsible for her son’s death.
Mohammad Iqbal Naibzehi was one of many نوجوان victims of that day—young lives lost, many of whom remain largely unknown, yet whose stories reflect the broader human and social realities of that period.