Aref Ghanbarzai was a 15-year-old member of the Anarchist Federation of Iran & Afghanistan, assassinated on the 22nd of September in 2022 by state security forces. He was shot by members of the IRGC in his slum residence with his hands up, refusing to be arrested and tortured to death by the Iranian theocratic regime.
Aref was a child worker and of the Baloch ethnicity, one of the historically oppressed nations of Iran. He had participated in the Anarchist Federation’s assemblies, as well as the revolt across the territories of Iran in the wake of Mahsa Amini’s murder by morality police for not wearing a hijab.
Like many other impoverished Baloch peoples, Aref did not have proper ID and has no photo record of himself. The memory of his life and struggle for the liberation of all, will, therefore, be diffused only through the saying of his name. Aref Ghanbarzai presente!