Sevda’s body was taken away. Samira says it took her days to find her daughter again. Like many others, she found herself at one of Tehran’s largest morgues.
“Teenagers – young boys and girls. So many had been killed,” she cries.
“I died with every bag I unzipped. I’d never seen so many bodies. But I wouldn’t give up.”
She finally found her daughter. “Three bodies were piled on top of Sevda. That’s how we found her.”
Iranian authorities acknowledge
Finding Sevda’s body was just the beginning of Samira’s battle with the authorities, she says.
To be allowed to take away the body for burial, she says she was forced to say that “terrorists” rather than the security forces had been responsible for Sevda’s death.
“They did this to cover up what they’d done on 8 and 9 January, to hide how many people they had killed. They silenced families by telling them to say their loved ones were killed by Israeli or American terrorists.”
Nevertheless she was barred from visiting the grave after the funeral, or organising a tombstone, she says.
And Samira says the harassment continued. A few days before the ceremony to mark 40 days since Sevda died – highly significant in Iranian culture – she says she was summoned by a local branch of the Ministry of Intelligence.
“They told me: ‘You should give us an interview and say that Sevda was a Basiji and she was killed by the protesters. Then we will announce her [as] a martyr – you will then receive perks, a house, or anything that you want.'”
She is sure this offer was prompted by fear, because she had shared Sevda’s death with an Iranian media organisation based in London, once the internet had been reconnected in the country.
“It scared them that I was in touch with external networks or those outside Iran.”
To avoid giving the interview, Samira fled Iran as soon as the 40th day anniversary was over.
“I didn’t want to trade with my child’s blood.”
She says people smugglers helped her to escape. She crossed rivers and mountains to get to safety.
A video she made of herself fleeing makes clear her fury.
“This crap government, these bastards, they’ve harassed me so much,” she tells the camera as she marches along a mountain path bordered by a deep ravine.