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Nika Shakarami, a 16-year-old Iranian girl, was born on October 2, 2005, in Khorramabad, Lorestan province, to a Lur family. After her father's death, she moved to Tehran, where she lived with her aunt and worked in a coffee shop.
On September 20, 2022, Nika participated in the Mahsa Amini protests on Keshavarz Boulevard in Tehran, advocating for women's rights. She went missing after telling a friend she was being chased by security forces. Her Telegram and Instagram accounts were deleted, and her phone was turned off that night. Ten days later, her family was informed that her body was at the Kahrizak morgue. They were only allowed a brief glimpse of her face for identification. Authorities initially claimed she died from falling from a height, showing a suspicious photograph. However, her aunt stated that Nika's nose was destroyed and her skull "broken and disintegrated from multiple blows of a hard object." A leaked Iranian document, verified by the BBC in 2024, revealed that Shakarami was taken captive by security forces in an undercover van, sexually assaulted, and then beaten to death with batons when she fought back. Her captors, reportedly affiliated with Iranian Hezbollah, dumped her body under the Yadegar-e-Emam highway after reporting her death and receiving new orders. There was no indication they were punished.
Her family planned to bury her in Khorramabad on her 17th birthday, October 2. However, security forces allegedly pressured them not to hold a public funeral. Despite an agreement, authorities reportedly stole her body and buried her in Hayat ol Gheyb, about 40 kilometers away, to prevent her grave from becoming a protest site. Her aunt and uncle were arrested on October 2 and allegedly coerced into making false confessions on state television, claiming Nika committed suicide. Nika's mother, however, criticized the government's cover-up attempts and stated that a medical report showed Nika died on September 20 from blunt force trauma to the head. A death certificate also cited "multiple injuries caused by blows with a hard object."
Nika Shakarami's death, along with Sarina Esmailzadeh and Hadis Najafi, became a rallying cry for the ongoing protests, with her image appearing on posters across Iranian cities. On the 40th day of her death, a large crowd gathered at her burial site, chanting protest slogans despite attempts by security forces to block access and disperse them with tear gas and gunshots.