Iran's anti-government uprising has been marked by cycles of killing and mourning. As the deaths pile up, funerals and commemorations have become their own form of protest, as well as another grim venue for the state's systematic crackdown on dissent.

The Washington Post analyzed 18 cases of state violence at mourning events - focusing on three where security forces used fatal force - interviewing eyewitnesses and human rights observers and reviewing dozens of videos and images.

Many of the cases were from the predominantly Kurdish northwest, fitting a pattern of disproportionate use of state force against ethnic minorities. Visual evidence shows national police units and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps using live fire and less-lethal weapons on mourners.

In the Iranian Shiite funerary tradition, there is the burial itself, followed by memorial gatherings on the third and seventh days after the death, followed by a third, a "chehellom," on the 40th day. Many of those killed have been elevated as martyrs by the protest movement, with each public display of mourning inspiring new rounds of demonstrations - and new repression by the state.

One of the uprising's earliest viral images was from the funeral of Javad Heydari, who was killed on Sept. 22 in the northern city of Qazvin during an anti-government demonstration. Videos showed his sister cutting her hair over Javad's casket - a sharp departure from the past, when families of those killed by the state would bury their loved ones in private, pressured by authorities to keep quiet.

Iran's clerical rulers understand the power, and danger, of public grief. In July 1978, religious leaders organized large protests around the death of a popular opposition figure. Crowds marching in funeral processions in Mashhad chanted slogans against the ruling Pahlavi monarchy. Riot police reportedly fired into the crowds, killing around 40 people. Seven months later, the Islamic revolution would overthrow the shah.

Iranian security forces have killed at least 530 protesters since September, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, and protests have been more sporadic in recent weeks. On March 21, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, struck a triumphal tone, saying the government had put down the unrest. "The Islamic republic proved that it is strong," he said.

"They want to scare the population, and they want to convey the message that 'we won't let you rest even if you're dead,'" said Shahin Milani, the executive director of the Connecticut-based Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, which has worked to verify state attacks on mourning events.

A spokesman for Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Death at a chehellom

Hadis Najafi was killed Sept. 21 during an anti-government protest in Karaj, a large city near Tehran. Najafi's death received widespread attention because she was close in age to Mahsa Amini - the 22-year-old whose death in the custody of Iran's "morality police" sparked the uprising - and had a large following on Instagram and TikTok.

Forty days after her death, on Nov. 3, thousands of people headed to the Beheshte Sakineh cemetery on the outskirts of Karaj for Najafi's chehellom. Government forces blocked the highway exit that leads to the cemetery, according to eyewitnesses. Videos show mourners walking along the highway, trying to make their way in.

Unable to reach the gravesite, mourners spread out across the city. Farther south, hundreds marched along Beheshti Boulevard, on the northern edge of the Khorramdasht neighborhood. There, a video verified by The Post shows the moment that 17-year-old Mehdi Hazrati was shot and killed.

In the video, protesters are seen throwing rocks toward the security forces, some of which are clad in black body armor. Mark Pyruz, an expert on Iran's security services, identified the officers wearing black body armor as riot police - a unit under the national police force, or FARAJA. As Hazrati walks toward the police, a gunshot rings out. His body slumps to the ground.

"The gunshot sounds like a clear muzzle blast," said Steven Beck, a forensic gunshot analyst who reviewed the video for The Post, suggesting it came from a smaller firearm. "It is not a big gun like a sniper rifle," he added.

"The shooter, without hesitation or making a mistake, took aim at close range and aimed exactly at the head and shot [Hazrati]," according to a Karaj resident whose mother recorded the video, which later made its way to activists. Too afraid to speak to journalists, the woman shared her account with her son, who spoke to The Post on her behalf.

The Iranians interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals from the authorities.

In the chaos that followed, the government said protesters assaulted a member of the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary under the command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, the country's most feared military force. Fifteen people were arrested, and five of them were sentenced to death in what Amnesty International described as "sham trials." Mohammad Mehdi Karami, 22, and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, 39, were hanged on Jan. 7; the death sentences for the other three men are under review by the judiciary.

In mid-December, mourners gathered again at Beheshte Sakineh cemetery, this time for Hazrati's chehellom, according to a video posted to Telegram by the Iranian citizen journalist account Mamlekate. In the video, a family member claims that Hazrati's parents were put under house arrest, preventing them from visiting his grave.

'More and more ruthless'

On Dec. 31 in Javanrud, a Kurdish city in western Kermanshah province, a crowd of hundreds gathered for a chehellom for seven protesters killed by security forces. But as mourners reached the Haji Ibrahim Cemetery, they were met by a large contingent of government forces.

"A policeman from the special police forces used a speaker attached to one of their vehicles to tell people to go home," a 29-year-old Javanrud resident told The Post. "He said, 'This is a holy place. Don't let there be any blood spilled here.' In a way he was making both a request and a threat."

One video from the cemetery shows more than 20 officers in dark uniforms and body armor. The Post showed these videos to Pyruz, who identified forces from the FARAJA's Special Unit, as well as from the IRGC's Ansar al-Rasoul Brigade and what appear to be plainclothes operatives.

"[The security forces] were clearly outnumbered by multiples," Pyruz said. "This is typically where one observes the application of lethal force - when police or IRGC/Basij are at an overwhelming numerical disadvantage in confronting a resisting force of protesters."

Afshon Ostovar, an associate professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in California who focuses on Iranian national security, also analyzed the videos. "When the military gets involved, it means that the protests have become a national security concern," he said, referring to the deployment of the IRGC. "Typically, that means the military is authorized to use greater degrees of violence than the police, including lethal violence to put down the protests."

When riot police failed to contain the crowd, IRGC forces opened fire, eyewitnesses said. "The Revolutionary Guard started to shoot at us. People didn't even make a single move. We were just standing in the same place and were chanting protest slogans," said another Javanrud resident who was there that day.

Borhan Elyasi, 22, was killed during the crackdown, according to Hengaw, a Kurdish human rights group. Hengaw shared graphic footage online claiming to show Elyasi bloody on a hospital stretcher, and his death was confirmed to The Post by locals.

"People rushed him to the hospital, but he didn't survive," said a staff attorney for the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) who has documented the incident in Javanrud and dozens of others like it at mourning events across the Kurdish region. "The Iranian government has become more and more ruthless and shameless in using live ammunition in the light of the day."

"It is unknown why they started shooting at people, because I have seen it in different videos from different angles that they could have stopped people from entering the cemetery," the attorney added, pointing to video posted by Hengaw that shows mourners fleeing the area amid clouds of tear gas.

'They martyred poor Borhan'

On Nov. 15, Foad Mohammadi was killed in a protest in Kamyaran, in Kurdistan Province in the west of the country, near the border with Iraq. The following day, people gathered outside Mohammadi's family's home in Kamyaran to pay their respects and to express outrage at his killing.

"We saw that we were surrounded by security forces in uniforms, civilian clothing. Basijis [members of the IRGC's volunteer wing], intelligence agents, they were all over the area. People were chanting protest slogans like 'Women, life, freedom' and 'Martyrs don't die,'" a Kamyaran resident told The Post.

A video filmed outside Mohammadi's parent's house and verified by The Post captures the moment that a 32-year-old named Borhan Karami is shot and killed. There are at least four audible gunshots in the footage; Karami collapses after the third shot. Before Karami is hit, he appears to point in the direction of the gunfire.

It is unclear from the video who fired the fatal shot, but the Kamyaran resident said he saw anti-riot forces open fire. "Maybe about five or 10 meters away from me, I saw that all of a sudden, a young person fell to the ground. He hit the asphalt with his head. People ran away," the eyewitness recounted. "We ran over and saw that the shooters were still standing right there on the street. They martyred poor Borhan."

The chief justice of Kurdistan Province, speaking to a local news site, confirmed that Karami was fatally shot in the head but stated that "no officer was present when this person was shot."

"The government showed no interest in doing investigation in this case," said the IHRDC staff attorney, who has also reviewed Karami's case. "No person has been held accountable for his murder."

Hengaw shared a video online that purports to show a gathering of mourners at Karami's nighttime burial on Nov. 16. "Mother, don't mourn for your child, we promise to avenge him," the crowd chants, before reverting to the protest movement's defining slogan: "Death to Khamenei."