\u201cIf this is not a crime against humanity, what is?\u201d said Arash Sigarchi, an award-winning journalist, former Iranian political prisoner and managing editor of Voice of America\u2019s Persian Division,\u00a0sharing the image on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n He compared the picture to the display of victims\u2019 shoes at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, and branded the Iranian theocracy \u201cNazi-like.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese shoes in Rasht are not art,\u201d Suren Edgar, vice president of the Australian-Iranian Community Alliance,\u00a0also wrote on X<\/a>, alongside the heartbreaking image.<\/p>\n \u201cThey belonged to people trapped after regime forces set the historic bazaar on fire and shot those trying to escape. The imagery is unmistakable \u2014 an Iranian Holocaust unfolding in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n The victims of the Rasht massacre had reportedly surrendered to security forces before being slaughtered, according to Iran Human Rights<\/a> (IHR), a Norway-based NGO.<\/p>\n Footage of the aftermath,\u00a0shared by the rights organization<\/a>, also shows the burned-out, smoldering remains of the bazaar.<\/p>\n Iran remains under an internet blackout since Jan. 8, when authorities all but cut ordinary Iranians off from the outside world, allowing security forces to act with impunity.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mass killings started right after the internet blackout,\u201d IHR\u2019s founder, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, told British newspaper\u00a0the Observer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Iran has remained under an internet blackout since Jan. 8, when authorities all but cut ordinary Iranians off from the outside world, allowing security forces to act with impunity.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mass killings started right after the internet blackout,\u201d IHR\u2019s founder, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, told British newspaper\u00a0The Observer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Among the scenes of brutality that have emerged from behind the regime\u2019s sensors is footage showing government forces firing on people in the capital, Tehran, on Thursday.<\/p>\n The disturbing video shows demonstrators running for their lives as they are sprayed with bullets during protests at the city\u2019s\u00a0Second Sadeghieh Square,\u00a0VOA\u2019s Persian news network reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here is the latest on the civil unrest in Iran:<\/p>\n It comes as the death toll from the protests, which began last month initially in response to soaring costs of living, is now\u00a0feared to have topped 16,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/haunting-image-shows-pile-abandoned-119216219.jpg\")
All these abandoned shoes belonged to protesters who were burned to death. X\/sigarchi<\/p>\n![\"Aftermath](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/via-reuters-attention-editors-picture-118880883.jpg\")
The picture shows the aftermath of the massacre on Jan. 8, in which regime henchmen set fire to the popular marketplace,\u00a0according to eyewitness accounts and human rights organizations. via REUTERS<\/p>\n