"Fear and caution are usually to be found among people who have something to lose, which cannot be said for Iran's young people... They have spent much of their lives watching inflation rise, the Rial tank and their prospects of marriage, a flat and a car – Iranian society's trinity of success - recede.
Emerging from lockdown, they have found that world outside Iran's borders has become less accessible, while sanctions continue to inhibit growth and spending power, the authorities impede access to inhibit access to the internet, and more and more economic power accrues to regime figures and their families."
– Christopher de Bellaigue, for the Guardian
Of particular concern is the authorities’ apparent refusal to release the bodies of those killed to their families, or making the release of their bodies conditional on the families not speaking to the media or agreeing to give a false narrative on the cause of death.
Kian Pirfalak, a 10 year old robotics enthusiast, was killed by IRGC bullets as he was traveling home with his parents in the family car in the city of Izeh, in western Iran.
In a video circulated on social media after his death, Kian demonstrates a propeller boat he made for a school, he starts his video with "In the name of the God of Rainbows.“
Kian's death and funeral sparked an increase in nationwide protests, a 10 year old's Rainbow God celebrated and chanted by Iranians as a phrase of resistance against their cruel theocracy.
Kian is only one of the many children who have died since the beginning of this uprising. By the end of November, 63 children were reported dead at the hands of regime forces.
It is important to remember that these figures are likely much higher because the regime pressures families by withholding their bodies of the deceased or threatening families with more deaths and arrests.
After the outpouring of fury Kian's death caused across the nation, the I.R. regime blamed his death on ISIS forces. Ironically for most Iranians, the Islamic Regime and ISIS are one and the same, terrorists who are holding their own people captive.
