🖤 “Hit me instead of the children.”
Those were the words of 66-year-old Jamileh Shafiei, a mother and grandmother from Arak who stood between bullets and Iran’s young protesters during the January 2026 uprising.
Witnesses say she placed herself between security forces and demonstrators, turning herself into a shield for children she didn’t even know.
For that, she was shot and killed on January 9, 2026.
After her death, her family faced intimidation, censorship, and a rushed burial. Her daughter was unable to look at her mother’s face because of the gunshot wound.
Her husband, a 70-year-old man, was later photographed sitting alone in their home, devastated and weeping over the loss of the woman who had been the heart of their family.
Jamileh Shafiei did not die protecting herself.
She died protecting Iran’s children.