“Hey… I’m still here”: examples of fabricated casualty reports by Western media about Iran

Pars Today – Western- and Israel-affiliated media, by distorting the image of Iran, have pursued a project of false casualty reporting during the recent unrest, issuing ever-increasing figures of alleged deaths. Many of the individuals listed as “killed” are in fact completely unharmed and have expressed surprise at the publication of such claims.

In recent weeks, the unrest in Iran has become a major discursive battleground and a platform for various—sometimes contradictory—narratives propagated by foreign media and political actors. The protests initially emerged as entirely peaceful and civil, with law enforcement and security forces making efforts to protect demonstrators. However, with the infiltration of armed terrorist elements, the course of the protests was diverted toward rioting and chaos.

According to Pars Today, terrorists—who, by the admission of Western and Israeli security and intelligence officials, were armed and supported by hostile regimes—engaged in “casualty fabrication” with the aim of creating a narrative of “widespread systematic violence against protesters by the Islamic Republic,” providing propaganda material for media affiliated with the rioters.

Based on available evidence and the accounts of witnesses and security experts, this fabrication occurred on two levels: first, on the streets through the massacre of people by terrorists, and second, through the creation of false narratives, including the publication of fabricated statistics and names of alleged victims. This report aims to examine the details of this issue.

“Hey… I’m still here!”

Some media outlets affiliated with the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) terrorist group have published false reports about deaths in the Iranian protests. Among those listed as “killed,” several individuals are alive and well, and were never killed—let alone by Iran’s security forces! Below are some examples of these cases.

Media outlets affiliated with the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MKO), known in Iran as the Monafeqin, circulated a photo of a teenage boy named “Kourosh Shirini”, claiming he had been killed in the recent unrest by Iranian security forces on Pirouzi Street in Tehran. However, a search of social media revealed that the image actually belonged to David Bennet, the son of Naftali Bennet, former prime minister of the Israeli regime.

Some Western media outlets claimed that a 19-year-old girl named Shahrzad Mokhami, known by her blogger name Diana Bahador or “Baby Rider”, from Golestan Province (northern Iran), had been killed during the January 9 unrest. In reality, reports indicate that she died in a traffic accident. The young woman passed away at 10:30 PM on January 23—about two weeks after the unrest—on the road from Golestan Forest to Galikesh near the village of Pasang, following a collision with a guardrail.

Golestan traffic police stated that the cause of the accident was the driver’s carelessness and inability to control the vehicle due to excessive speed. Shahrzad’s father, Karim Mokhami, also confirmed to reporters that his daughter died in a traffic accident and emphasized that her death was unrelated to the protests.

Mobina Beheshti, a 21-year-old girl from Gorgan, became another victim of the anti-Iranian media’s casualty fabrication campaign. After a few days, when she checked social media, she discovered rumors claiming she had been killed.

On January 28, she posted a video to confirm that she was alive. Mobina said:
"I really don’t understand who did this. I am completely healthy and safe; why would photos and videos of my supposed death be circulated? Please don’t believe foreign media; they have nothing to say except to lie about us!"

In another case, Israel’s Channel 12 falsely presented a young Jewish girl living in the occupied territories, named Noya Zion, as a Jewish victim killed in the protests in Iran. The girl later posted a video on TikTok to confirm that she was alive. Zion said:

"My heart is racing. I never thought something like this would happen in my life. I am at home and about to go out for exercise."

She also emphasized that she has no relatives or acquaintances in Iran. Some media outlets even referred to her as “Sanaz Javaherian”, falsely claiming that she had been detained during the protests, beaten to near death for over an hour, and that her body was returned 13 days later.

This incident became the subject of widespread mockery and jokes online, with some humorously telling Zion: “You must be dead in Iran, but your body is hot, and you haven’t realized it yet.”

In another instance of the casualty fabrication campaign, it was claimed that Ali Alipour, head of the Boxing Committee in Pol-e Dokhtar County, Lorestan Province, Iran, had been detained during the protests on January 9 and killed under torture. In reality, he passed away on January 22 due to a heart condition and was buried the following day in a ceremony attended by sports officials from the province.

Iran International, a media outlet affiliated with Israel, in another report, named Mohammad Rasoul Bayati, a bodybuilder, as yet another victim of the recent unrest in Iran. In response, an IRIB reporter visited Bayati’s gym and interviewed him. Bayati, expressing surprise and regret over the false report, confirmed that he is completely healthy. He stated that since Monday, he had received numerous calls from family and close friends who were worried and anxious due to the fake news.

Similarly, Reza Niknam, an Iranian citizen from Kovar County, Fars Province, who was also listed as a victim in the casualty fabrication campaign, posted a video denying the rumors and confirming that he had not been shot and is in full health.

Repeating an old scenario

Cases like these are widespread on the internet and easily accessible to the general public. As tensions gradually subside and the haze stirred up by terrorism-supporting media clears, more truths and evidence are expected to emerge. A review of the track record of these media outlets and their supporters shows that similar incidents are abundant in their history.

For example, in July 1999, during a small student protest, Ahmad Batebi raised a bloody shirt above his head, claiming it belonged to one of the protesting students. The Economist magazine in the U.S. even published a photo of Batebi on its main cover. Years later, it was revealed that the shirt was actually stained with goat’s blood.

Despite this scandal and their history of spreading falsehoods about the Iranian people and government, Ahmad Batebi, along with Masih Alinejad (an employee of the U.S. State Department), were invited by Western officials to speak at the UN Security Council meeting on January 15 regarding events in Iran. The likely aim of such invitations was not necessarily to convey the truth, but rather to repeat and reinforce a prewritten narrative.

Their accounts of events in Iran were so biased and unrealistic that Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, responded by saying:
"These individuals, who have lived in the United States for over 20 years and pursue their anti-Iranian agendas there, cannot represent the Iranian people."

Why fabricate casualties?

Through the casualty‑fabrication project, the United States and the Israeli regime are pursuing two objectives. The first is a strategy of creating a parallel crisis and engaging in reverse engineering to steer public opinion away from the horrific crimes committed by the regime against the people of Gaza—where, since October 7, 2023, the number of martyrs has reached 71,662 and the number of wounded 171,428. Accordingly, a similar or near‑equivalent figure must be “manufactured” in Iran to normalize and diminish the gravity of those crimes. In this context, the presentation of a fabricated figure of 71,662 deaths in Iran’s protests—matching the number of martyrs in Gaza—by Western‑ and Israeli‑affiliated media would not be unexpected.

Secondly, the track record of the United States—especially under the Trump administration—shows that it often conceals its colonial objectives behind seemingly legitimate slogans in order to build international consensus to secure its interests. Recently, U.S. leaders, through extensive propaganda against Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, accused him of directing drug‑trafficking networks and then, in blatant violation of all international laws and norms, abducted him at night and transferred him to the United States. Many international relations experts, however, viewed Washington’s real objective as gaining control over Venezuela’s oil resources.

The U.S. record in the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, among others, reflects a similar pattern. With regard to Iran, it can likewise be said that after the failure of Western parties to achieve their objectives in the imposed 12‑day war against Iran, Washington is likely seeking a new pretext to justify its interference and aggressive actions.

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