Iranian man shot dead for celebrating national team’s exit from World Cup

An Iranian man was shot dead by security forces in Tehran after Iran’s national team lost its final group-level match to the United States of America in the World Cup and exited the tournament. As per news reports, anti-government demonstrations took place inside and outside the stadium in Qatar and across Iran after the national team lost to the United States 1-0 loss in Qatar on Tuesday night. 

Mehran Samak, 27, was shot dead after honking his car horn in Bandar Anzali, a city in the north-west of Tehran, human rights activists said. 

“Samak was targeted directly and shot in the head by security forces … following the defeat of the national team against America,” said the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR). 

Iran has been seeing protests following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, in September. IHR has said that many Iranians had refused to support their football team in Qatar, seeing it as a representation of the Islamic Republic. The players too protested and refused to sing the national anthem before their first game against England. 

As per news reports,  Iran’s security forces have killed at least 448 people in the crackdown on the protests, including 60 children under the age of 18 and 29 women. 

Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), a New York-based organization batting for human rights, also said that Samak had been killed by the security forces while celebrating. They also published a video from Samak’s funeral in Tehran on Wednesday at which mourners could be heard shouting “death to the dictator”, which were aimed at Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 

Exiled Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad also tweeted about Iran’s loss and how protesters celebrated after he loss. “Iran is a country where people are very passionate about football. Now they are out in the streets in the city of Sanandaj and celebrate the loss of their football team against the US,” she wrote on Twitter.