
In November 2025, Omid Sarlak, a young man living in western Iran, posted a video on social media showing himself setting fire to a photograph of Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Just hours after the video was published, his body was found inside his car with a gunshot to the head.
The same month, Samad Pourshah, a former political prisoner, carried out a similar act in protest against Sarlak’s killing, again burning a photograph of the supreme leader.