If things had been different, Navid Afkari could have fulfilled a lifelong dream of representing Iran as an Olympic wrestler. And if Donald Trump or even Dana White had their way, Afkari would at least still be alive.
But in September 2020, he was hanged in Iran for a crime he insisted he didn’t commit, executed by the country he longed to represent after taking to the streets to protest against the regime.
Six years on and the harrowing story of Afkari’s death shows how little has changed in Iran today and the terrifying risks the population are taking by flooding the streets in demand for change.
Wrestling is Iran’s national sport, its history stretching back to the days of ancient Persia. They have won 51 Olympic medals, more than any other event in their history. Wrestling gyms are on street corners of every city. And it was there where Afkari thrived.
At 17, he made a national training camp for just eight wrestlers in the 69kg category. By 23, he was earmarked by coaches as a future Olympian and to fund the pursuit of his dreams, he worked as a labourer by day. He won titles in Greco-Roman wrestling, where competitors only use their upper bodies to fight an opponent.
Achieving what Afkari did in a proud nation’s first sport garners prestige. But that heroic status put a target on his back that cost him his life at the age of 27.
Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari was executed in 2020 for protesting against his country’s rulers
He was hanged at age 27 despite efforts from Donald Trump and Dana White to save him
After taking part in widespread national protests against an increasingly paranoid and isolated Iranian regime in 2018 he, along with his two brothers, were arrested for the murder of a security guard.
His trial was branded ‘grossly unfair’ by Amnesty international.
Reports say the judge refused to show footage used to link Afkari with the crime or hear him present any form of defence, while Afkari claimed he was tortured into giving a false confession that was eventually broadcast on Iranian television days before his execution.
He was convicted and given two death sentences – the second for ‘waging war against the state’ due to his participation in the protests. His brothers were handed 54 and 27-year sentences with one serving 1,000 days of solitary confinement.
Afkari’s complaints of torture were never investigated and on September 12, 2020 he was hanged in the ancient city of Shiraz – known as the city of poets – where he had grown up.
It was a hurried execution. His family were prevented from seeing him one last time, as Iranian law states should happen. While the circumstances around the morning of his death on September 12 are hazy, the reasons he had been put in that position are not.
The regime wanted to send a message to the people with his death – if it could happen to Afkari, a famous wrestler, it could happen to you.
‘It is deeply disturbing that the (Iranian) authorities appear to have used the death penalty against an athlete as a warning to its population in a climate of increasing social unrest,’ the United Nations said in a statement.
Iran is once again engulfed by protests from its population against the Islamic Republic regime
‘The execution of Navid Afkari was summary and arbitrary, imposed following a process that did not meet even the most basic substantive or procedural fair trial standards, behind a smokescreen of a murder charge.’
In a leaked voice recording from prison before his death, Afkari railed against his fate.
‘During all the years that I wrestled, I never faced a cowardly opponent who played dirty,’ Afkari said, in a chilling recording. ‘It has been two years that my family and I have had to face off against injustice and the most cowardly and dishonourable opponent.
‘Without a doubt, without your support and aid we will all lose. If I am executed, I want you to know that an innocent person, even though he tried and fought with all his strength to be heard, was executed.’
Afkari was protesting in 2018 against Iran’s ruling theocracy that has been in place since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
In Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has the final say on political matters, but there are other competing factions of power. There is a somewhat loosely elected president alongside the Islamic Revolutionary Guards – an arm of the military with increasing influence, founded the year the Islamic Republic took power. Their job is exactly what it says on the tin: guard the revolution and by whatever means necessary.
Iran’s population – a young population – have grown increasingly disenchanted by the stranglehold over their freedoms. The internet, when it isn’t blacked out, is heavily policed – people use VPNs and other inventive methods to keep contact with the outside world – and Twitter and Facebook are banned, despite Khamenei having his own X account.
Women must wear headscarves – hijabs – in public. Homosexuality is illegal, and sexual activity outside of marriage is forbidden.
UFC president Dana White filmed a video asking Iran to drop the death sentence against Akfari
Trump tried behind-the-scenes and through social media to pressure Iran into sparing him
In 2018 the United States, under Trump’s first presidency, imposed an array of sanctions on Iran after withdrawing from the nuclear deal. Iran furiously responded by ramping up its nuclear programme in a sequence of events that led to Trump bombing their nuclear sites in June 2025.
But back then, Trump’s measures saw the economy crumple and inflation spiral as large swathes of frustrated Iranians took to the streets in protest, including Afkari.
It was a decision that would cost him his life, despite the ensuing global outcry that caught the attention of significant names from across the sporting world who tried to intervene.
In the week before his execution, UFC president Dana White made an effort to raise awareness of Afkari’s plight by releasing a video directed at the Iranian government, pleading for Afkari to be spared.
‘This guy, first of all he’s a human being. Two, he’s one of us – could be any of my fighters,’ White said in the footage. ‘I too, respectfully and humbly, ask the government in Iran to please not execute this man and spare his life.’
White would later say of Afkari’s situation that ‘at no point did it look good’.
He even persuaded Trump to intervene. As well as behind the scenes work, Trump took to Twitter calling for Afkari to be saved.
‘Hearing that Iran is looking to execute a great and popular wrestling star, 27-year-old Navid Afkarai (sic), whose sole act was an anti-government demonstration on the streets,’ Trump said. ‘They were protesting the country’s worsening economic situation and inflation.
‘To the leaders of Iran, I would greatly appreciate if you would spare this young man’s life, and not execute him. Thank you!’ he wrote, linking to a Fox News article about Afkari.
Trump, on Wednesday, appeared to step back from the brink of intervening in Iran
Afkari had long reviled Iran’s rulers. He followed US-based Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad on Instagram – one of the social media platforms Iran has not banned. Alinejad is a fierce and relentless critic of the regime and its human rights record, documenting the struggles of the Iranian people to her millions of followers.
Unbeknown to her until after his death, Akfari once commented on her February 2018 post about a woman being arrested for protesting the compulsory hijab law. He wrote ‘I spit on your rotten soul’ about Supreme Leader Khamenei. It was liked 71,000 times.
‘In death, Navid has reached heroic status,’ Alinejad told the Daily Mail. ‘He has become larger in death than he ever was in life.
‘The government viewed Navid as a threat and silenced him, using his execution as a deterrent to others. But his only crime was to protest against an unjust system. The government wanted to send a message of fear. He’s a hero for millions.’
Alinejad’s own defiance in speaking out against Iran’s Islamic regime – not just on behalf of Afkari – has come at a remarkable impact on her own safety.
Iranian demonstrators pictured in Tehran this week as part of the ongoing protests
In 2020, the FBI foiled a plot to kidnap Alinejad from New York and take her to Venezuela by speedboat and then on to Iran, where, she told CNN, she believes she would have been executed. And in October 2025, two Russian mobsters were sentenced to 25 years behind bars for hiring a hitman to kill Alinejad at her home in Brooklyn on behalf of the Iranian government.
In the months after Afkari’s death, his grave was repeatedly targeted by thugs who have destroyed headstones.
According to the website Iran International in December 2020, Afkari’s father was told his other two sons would be moved out of isolation and to a better prison if the family approved a headstone from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. Essentially, one that prevents his grave becoming a rallying point for those who want change.
But clearly, Afkari’s death did not scare protestors into silence. Whether the Iranian regime rides out this latest storm or finally falls, Afkari’s name is one of thousands who paid the ultimate price by standing against it.
