Also killed was Aminian, a Kurdish student who was shot from behind while taking part in a protest on Thursday, according to three rights groups.

Two groups – Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and Kurdish organisation Hengaw – said she was shot in the head, while the Kurdistan Human Rights Network said she was shot in the back. Both Kurdish groups said she was shot by government forces.

The BBC has been unable to independently verify the circumstances of her death.

The 23-year-old, whose first name has also been spelled Robina or Roubina, was studying textile and fashion at Shariati Technical and Vocational College in Tehran, IHRNGO said.

“She was a strong girl, a courageous girl, and she was not someone you could control and make decisions for,” her uncle told CNN. “She fought for things she knew were right and fought hard.”

He added that she was “thirsty for freedom, thirsty for women’s rights”.

“Overall, she was a girl who was alive, who lived.”

Members of Aminian’s family travelled from their hometown in Kermanshah, western Iran, to Tehran to identify her body after learning of her death, a source close to the family told INRNGO.

The family had to search through hundreds of bodies of young people killed in the protests at a location close to her college, the source said.

“It wasn’t just my daughter; I saw hundreds of bodies with my own eyes,” Aminian’s mother said, in a statement from the source.

Iranian authorities allegedly initially refused to hand over Aminian’s body to her family, then prevented her burial or mourning ceremonies in their hometown, the source said.

The family was reportedly forced to bury her along the road between Kermanshah and Kamyaran.

Iranian leader Khamenei has called anti-government protesters “troublemakers,” while US President Donald Trump has threatened to intervene and said the US military is considering “very strong options”.

Iran has also accused protesters of being backed by the US and Israel.

The protests have been the most widespread since an uprising in 2022 sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.

Then, more than 550 people were killed and 20,000 detained, according to human rights groups.