Navid Afkari was an Iranian, a champion wrestler, and a patriot, who wanted only the best for Iran. In 2018, he and two of his brothers attended a peaceful protest – it was put down violently by Iranian security forces – against the miserable state of Iran’s economy. For that brief nonviolent appearance, Navid Afkari was falsely accused of killing a security office who was monitoring the protest. There was not a shred of evidence to support that charge. Nonetheless, Afkari was sentenced to death; he was hanged this September. A report on how the Iranian regime continues, even after his death, to torment his family, is here: “Iran’s regime destroyed grave of executed champion wrestler,” by Benjamin Weinthal, Jerusalem Post, December 19, 2020:
The Islamic Republic of Iran continued its violent repression of the executed champion wrestler Navid Afkari, desecrating his grave on Thursday after his brother and father were arrested during a visit to the cemetery.
Afkari’s sister Elham posted a photograph of Navid’s ravaged grave, writing on Instagram: “You can threaten, destroy, or arrest, what are you going to do with Navid’s name and memory in people’s hearts?”
Iran’s regime, according to Western governments and human rights organizations, imposed an extrajudicial hanging on Afkari in September for his role in protesting regime corruption in 2018.
The regime sentenced him to death for an “act of war against God” for his participation in demonstrations against miserable economic conditions in Iran.
The clerical regime of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei claimed without evidence Afkari killed a security officer who monitored the protests.
The Jerusalem Post reported on Dec. 17 that Navid’s father Hossein Afkari and his brother Hamid were cleaning the area around the wrestler’s grave when they were arrested. They were released later in the day.
Apparently they had no right to clean the grave of their martyred son and brother. How many years, how many lashes, will each get for this intolerable defiance of the regime?
The destruction of Afkari’s grave electrified social media with a new wave of outrage directed at Tehran’s clerical rulers. “After executing innocent #NavidAfkari, a champion wrestler, and imprisoning his 2 brothers, Islamic Republic of Iran has now desecrated Navid’s grave. He’s not even allowed to rest in peace. How much more should this poor family suffer? The world, hear this family,” tweeted Masih.
According to the website Iran International, the governor of Sepidan, a county in the Fars province where Afkari is buried, said the authorities destroyed Navid’s grave site because of a wall that was constructed at the site that violated regulations.
The governor claimed that the wall was “without following technical engineering standards, and without permission from technical authorities.” Reports said that Navid’s father and brother sought to “prepare his grave for a tombstone when the security forces who identified themselves as Intelligence Ministry agents arrested them” wrote Iran International.
What wall at the grave site? The father and brother did not put up any wall; they were merely cleaning the site in order to later put up a tombstone, when they were arrested. This story about a wall that violated regulations is more nonsense and lies from the authorities – in this case, the governor of the country of Sepidan. And why were they arrested? What harm had they done to the Islamic Republic by sweeping away some handfuls of dirt and brush from the grave of their son and brother, Navid Afkari?
We understand. The tombstone would have posed a great danger to the mighty Islamic Republic. The 200,000 members of the IRGC would be quaking in their boots if it were allowed to be placed on his grave. Such a tombstone could have become the site of pilgrimages by those who were disaffected from the regime and wanted to pay respects to the memory of Navid Afkari. Some might even bring flowers, an Infidel custom, but not for true Muslims. Horrors! There had to be no tombstone, nor any other above-ground indication, of where Afkari’s grave was located. No tombstone, no grave marker of any kind, nothing to indicate where he was buried, only the dirt over the simplest of graves, dirt that was occasionally lifted and set down again by the wind.
For protesting against the worsening economic situation in 2018, Iran’s regime sentenced Navid’s brothers Vahid and Habib to 56 years and six months in prison and 24 years and three months in prison, respectively. Both brothers are also slated to receive 74 lashes….
Think about those sentences for a minute. 56 years – a life-sentence – for Vahid Afkari, because he took part in a non-violent protest against economic conditions in Iran. And 24 years for his brother Habib, for the same “crime.” Why such a difference in their sentences? Did Habib not shout as loudly as Vahid? Did he leave out a line? These are sentences suitable for murderers, not for those whose only crime is to chant “No to Gaza. No to Lebanon. I give my life for Iran.”
The immense cruelty of the Iranian regime, in killing Afkari, in sentencing his brothers to very long terms in hideous oubliettes like Evin Prison, in arresting his father and another of his brothers for the crime of cleaning his gravesite (and what sentences will the two of them receive?) – should be forever remembered on social media, where the violating hand of the Iranian regime cannot reach. And think of how great must be the fear, among the ayatollahs, of the power of Navid Afkari, even beyond the grave, as a martyr whose memory cannot be extinguished thanks to the Internet, and that will someday bring a fitting retribution – how long can this horrible regime last? — to those who snuffed out his young life.
Ade Fegan says
Worst thing any country can do is to import the mentality behind this kind of cruelty
But it’s more like can’t get enough of it
Billy Chickens says
The filth of Islam and its filthy prophet and his filthy Quran is …FILTH – Satanic, sadistic, monstrous, ruthless, vicious, demonic FILTH.
That poor beautiful young man and his poor father, brothers and family being subjected to ISLAMIC FILTH is so horrible that the radical Muslims that do this sort of filth are lucky that I am not God…because if I were, my most JUST PUNISHMENTS would be dealt to them in the blink of an eye. They would be pleading for my mercy….and while I contemplated thinking about maybe possibly being a bit nicer so that they might convert, I would make certain that they were really really sorry for having believed in their filthy Satanic Islamic religion of Lucifer.
But I am not God. Revenge is His.
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
[1] “Some might even bring flowers [to Navid Afkari’s grave], an Infidel custom, but not for true Muslims.” Bringing flowers to a grave is not an Infidel custom for true Muslims? Please cite a Quran passage or hadith that rules on the Islamicity of this custom. Is it listed in ‘Umdat al-Salik?
[2] What is the chant “No to Gaza. No to Lebanon. I give my life for Iran” in Farsi? Does it rhyme?
[3] oubliette = a concealed dungeon having a trap door in the ceiling as its only opening
gravenimage says
Here you go, Mark:
https://islamqa.info/en/answers/48958/it-is-not-prescribed-to-put-palm-leaf-stalks-or-flowers-on-graves
Islam rejects the most innocent and humane of customs. Islam Q&A is the most widely read Islamic site in English.
Walter Sieruk says
That’s what that “mullah tyranny “of Iran is most effective at. Which is murdering and brutally oppressing as well as supporting and funding dangerous and deadly jihad terrorist groups, as Hamas ,Hezbollah and even the Taliban.
Keith O says
Another fine example of the peaceful, kind, loving belief system that is islam.
The mullah’s, just like any other despots throughout history, are ruling with a combination of an iron fist and outright lies. The only real difference here is that the Iranian dictatorship uses their own perverted version of the “divine right of kings” to legitimise their rule. Fooling the population into believing that they were put there by allah to lead and protect them is one of the oldest plays in the book.
Now that the veil is slowly being lifted and the Iranian people are starting to see the mullahs for who and what they really are, the dictators are reacting as dictators have throughout history,,, by brutal repression.
Mojdeh says
Iran terrorist regime of Iran is always Terrorist, Hangs its citizens in the squares of cities, or cut their heads in secretly. So what i say this this regime must go and lies to teeth. Navid Jan is hero among many heroes in Iran.Iran Commander Threatens American Officials With Revenge On US Soil.
The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Qods Force, Esmail Ghaani once again has threatened American officials with revenge for the killing of his predecessor Qasem Soleimani, saying the response might come “from within your house”.
In a speech on Friday, January 1 in a ceremony to mark the first anniversary of Soleimani’s death, Ghaani said, “everywhere in the world a man might be found” who is ready “to punish those” responsible.
Soleimani was killed in a targeted US air attack in the early hours of January 3, 2020 as he arrived at Baghdad airport and his motorcade pulled away. As commander of the Qods (Quds) Force, he was Iran’s main architect of building a network of state and non-state allies and proxies in the region to expand the Islamic Republic’s influence.
Iran has repeatedly vowed to take revenge from the specific people responsible for making the decision and carrying it out. That would include President Donald Trump who took the responsibility for making the decision and other high-level US officials.
Ghaani said, “They have to know that even from within their house there might be people willing to respond to this crime.” The threat is a direct reference to possible acts of terror in the United States.
Hell to Ghani and Quds and all forces of Satanic in Iran. Wait soon USA Israel will respond you?
No Atom for Iran that citizens have starving to death with 500 daily people dies from COVID 19.
gravenimage says
The Murder of Navid Afkari and the Endless Cruelty of the Iranian Regime
……………..
Just horrifying–and now they are going after his father and brothers. The Mullahs are the worst of the worst.
job says
the worst cruelty is cruelty against your own people
Walter Sieruk says
We need to be grateful to God that the date ,1/3/21, of this posting Donald Trump is still the President and Chief Executive oft he United States of America. For President Trump has the wisdom to enact strong sanctions against that brutal ,cruel and oppressive “mullah tyranny” of Iran that engages in brutal, cruel and murderous violence against its own Iranian citizens, so how much do those in power in Iran care ,if possible, about the human rights of people of other nations ?
Back on the date of 4/22/19 the US Secretary of State ,Michael Pompeo spoke of that brutal and oppressive tyranny which oppresses the people of Iran and said “We will not appease their oppressors as that last administration did .” Pompeo then stated “We will support the Iranian people.”
As far back as on Tuesday, 2/5/ 19 in his second State on the Union a speech President Trump spoke of that Islamic tyranny of Iran as well as those in total power and complete of that tyrannical rogue state. For the President declared “It is a radical regime, they do bad, bad things.”
Moreover, an author of an article on a Freedom Site, Dariush Afshar, had explained the reality of the situation well when he wrote that the “People of Iran who fight for freedom in Iran and abroad put a huge gap and draw a prominent line between Iran and the Islamic regime in Tehran.”
This is sadly and tragically the terrible reality of this Islamic tyrannical regime of Iran. This Islamic tyranny has been well nicknamed “the mullahs regime” in which them mullahs and ayatollahs as well as other fiendish and fanatical Muslims in power have a strong and awful control of the Islamic regime of Iran and through their band of Islamic state “police” , who are called the “Revolutionary Guards “come down hard human rights of the Iranian people fear of the mullahs and others in power in Iran. This is a tragic and sad reminder of the wisdom that was printed in the periodical of Benjamin Franklin which is entitled POOR RICHARDS’ ALMANAC that reads “Those who are feared are also hated.”
It also should be added, to this that the actual word “Republic” has on origin the Latin meaning “Of the people” With the mullahs ayatollahs in so much power and even influencing the parliament of this Islamic regime is tyranny is hardly a real republic .Furthermore the ruthless gang of thugs who are the stooges of those Muslim clerics, called the “Revolutionary Guards,” those Islamic State “police” come down hard on the human rights and freedoms of the Iranian people. Therefore the people do have the right to overthrow a tyranny. This reality had even been expressed and described by men of great intelligence .For example the philosopher .John Locke. This is wisdom that mullahs and other villains in power in that Islamic tyranny don’t want the Iranian people to know about or understand.
Therefore, the Iranian people who are trapped and forced to exist in this Islamic tyranny live in terrible