December Protests: Hengaw reports 77 additional arrests across multiple cities
Hengaw – Friday, January 2, 2026
At least 77 additional individuals have been arrested in recent days amid the continuation of public protests and a widespread wave of detentions across multiple cities in Iran. According to information collected by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, those detained include 45 Kurds and 23 Lors, among them at least four women and six children.
With the inclusion of these 77 arrests over the past six days, the total number of recent detainees whose identities have been verified by Hengaw has risen to 132.
Breakdown of all detainees:
At least 12 women
At least 8 children
At least 64 Kurds
At least 39 Lors
At least 7 university students
At least 5 teachers
Breakdown of detainees by city:
According to statistics recorded by the Statistics and Documentation Center of Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, at least 77 additional individuals were arrested across various cities in recent days. The highest number of arrests was recorded in Ilam Province with 22 cases, followed by Kermanshah Province with 18 cases, and Khuzestan Province with 7 cases.
Ilam Province
Ilam
Mohammadjavad Zarei – January 1, 2026
Iman Alimoradi – January 1, 2026
Alireza Momeni (18) – January 1, 2026
Kourosh Nouri (15) – January 2, 2026
Omid Beiranvand – January 2, 2026
Amirhossein Alizadeh – January 1, 2026
Fardin Aghaei – January 1, 2026
Abolfazl Jamkhaneh – January 1, 2026
Sajad Azad – January 1, 2026
Abdollah Azad – January 1, 2026
Erfan Farahmand – January 1, 2026
Alireza Rahmani – January 1, 2026
Amirreza Rahmani – January 1, 2026
Shayan Momeni – January 1, 2026
Darreh Shahr
Abolfazl Ghasemi – January 2, 2026
Sattar Zeidi – January 2, 2026 (previously detained during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement)
Saman Gholami – January 2, 2026
Reza Heidari – January 2, 2026
Dehloran
Javad Hosseini – January 1, 2026
Arshia Jooshan – January 2, 2026
Abdanan
Mohammadjavad Zarei – January 1, 2026
Omid Naseri – January 2, 2026
Kermanshah (Kermashan) Province
Sarpol-e Zahab
Qaem Badri, Askar Najafi, Ahad Moradi, Esfandiar Sarvari, Jabbar Jamshidi, Masoud Aghaei, and Mehdi Karimi (previously detained and injured during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement) were arrested on Thursday, January 1, 2026.
Harsin
Rahman Azarang – January 2, 2026
Mohammadmehdi Karami (17) – January 1, 2026
Mohammad Seyfi – January 2, 2026
Yousef Kakavand – January 2, 2026
Noureddin Mousazadeh – January 2, 2026
Zahed Afshari – January 2, 2026
Kermanshah
Mahsa Zarei – January 2, 2026
Fardin Ahmadi (19, from Hamil, a district of Islamabad-e Gharb) – January 1, 2026
Younes Jamshidi – January 1, 2026
Navid Rostami – January 1, 2026
Milad Shirazi – January 1, 2026
Khuzestan Province
Izeh
Aref Asadi – December 31, 2025
Reza Asadi – December 31, 2025
Mousa Mousavi – December 30, 2025
Arman Shahpoori – December 30, 2025
Ilya Momeni – December 30, 2025
Akbar Mahmoudvand (16) – December 31, 2025
Armin Asadi – December 31, 2025
Baghmalek
Yousef Mirahmadi
Hadi Mirahmadi
Amirhossein Ghanbari
Amirreza Norouzi
Lali
Bagher Ghanbari – December 31, 2025
Hamadan Province
Asadabad
Mohammadhossein Shafighian
Yousef Marsali
Sam Forough
Alireza Nouri
Amir Farhadi
All were arrested at approximately 5:00 a.m. on Friday, January 2, 2026.
North Khorasan Province
Esfarayen
Peyman Rezaei – January 1, 2026
Arien Heidari – January 1, 2026
Abbas Beidi – January 1, 2026
Issa Shokouri – January 1, 2026
Nader Tavakoli – January 2, 2026
Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province
Yasuj
Mahan Khoubani (16) – January 1, 2026
Shahab Parand – January 2, 2026
Moslem Parzdar – January 2, 2026
Ilya Akvanian – January 2, 2026
Gachsaran
Fardin Moslemi – January 1, 2026
Isfahan Province
Isfahan
Mahshad Kashani – December 31, 2025
Reza Salahshour (16) – January 1, 2026
Razavi Khorasan Province
Sabzevar
Mehdi Fasangari – December 31, 2025
Amir Nodehi (from Sabzevar, resident of Tehran) – January 1, 2026
Erfan Abed (18) – January 1, 2026
Nazanin Zahra Mousavi (17) – January 1, 2026
Mashhad
Asghar Shakeri (physician) – January 1, 2026
Arrested inside his vehicle in front of his family; previously detained during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
Gilan Province
Rasht
Mahnaz Ghasemi – January 1, 2026
Kurdistan Province
Sanandaj (Sina)
Artin Ahmadi (14) – January 2, 2026
Tehran
Mithagh Koochpideh – recent days
Among those detained are at least four women, including Mahsa Zarei, a well-known Kurdish cultural activist from Kermanshah (Kermashan), who was arrested at her workplace on Friday, January 2, 2026, and transferred to an undisclosed location.
Also arrested were Mahnaz Ghasemi in Rasht, Nazanin Zahra Mousavi, a 17-year-old in Sabzevar, on Thursday, January 1, 2026, and Mahshad Kashani in Isfahan on Wednesday, December 31, 2025.
In addition to the arrests listed above, Hengaw has received reports of further detentions in other cities. The identities of those individuals are currently under verification.
Public protests began on Sunday, December 29, 2025, following strikes and collective protest marches by shopkeepers in Tehran, before spreading to other cities. The protests have been met with a repressive response by government forces, and in recent days a significant number of individuals, including women and children, have been arrested.
