Reza Ghanbari

Their life

Reza Ghanbari was a 17-year-old Kurdish teenager from Kermanshah, Iran, who was killed on 3 January 2026 during the nationwide protests against economic hardship and political repression. He had joined demonstrators in the Jafarabad neighborhood of Kermanshah when Iranian security forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), opened fire on the crowd. Ghanbari was reportedly shot in the back and side and died at the scene. His death highlights the severe crackdown by Iranian forces on largely youthful protesters in early January 2026.

Reza Ghanbari (Persian: رضا قنبری) was born around 2008/2009 in Kermanshah, in western Iran’s Kurdish region. As nationwide protests erupted across Iran in late December 2025 and early January 2026, driven by surging inflation, economic hardship, and widespread dissatisfaction with the government, many young people took to the streets. Ghanbari joined demonstrations in his city’s Jafarabad neighborhood on 3 January 2026, where security forces responded with live ammunition. According to human rights sources, he was shot in the back and side by IRGC forces during an assault on the protesting crowd. Ghanbari died at the scene. Iranian security authorities pressured his family to claim he was affiliated with the Basij militia and to attribute his death to protesters, but the family rejected these demands. A funeral notice indicated his burial took place on 5 January 2026 in the village of Jabbarabad Sofla in Kermanshah’s Bilivar district

How they died

Reza Ghanbari was killed by security forces firing on demonstrators during the mass protests spreading across Iran, which began in late December 2025 amid an economic crisis and grew into broader political demonstrations

During the protest in the Jafarabad neighborhood of Kermanshah on 3 January 2026, members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reportedly opened fire on the crowd with live ammunition. Witnesses and human rights monitors reported that Reza Ghanbari was hit by gunfire in the back and side. He succumbed to his injuries immediately at the scene; reportedly, security forces removed his body and it was not immediately returned to his family

Why we remember them

This record exists so that Reza Ghanbari, and all who are named in this archive, are never reduced to a number.

References & sources