Gohar Eshghi

On October 18, 2022 and amidst the Mahsa Amini protests Eshghi took off her hijab in a video that she published and said: "For the sake of our youth, after observing this hijab for [almost] 80 years for the religion that wants to kill people, I will take off my hijab." In the same video, she asked people to come to the streets in solidarity with the youth.

On December 11, 2022 Eshghi announced in a video message that she and her family have been threatened by government agents. She emphasized that if anything happens to them, the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei would be responsible. She added that the security forces have been threatening her for eleven years, but she and the people of Iran are ready to expel them and their master (Khamenei) from the country. Gohar Eshghi had previously reported threats against her by the clerical regime in early December saying, “No one is afraid of death! Don't threaten!”

In 2022, BBC included Gohar Eshghi in the list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world and praised her as a symbol of endurance and persistence.

On December 9, 2021 just before noon Eshghi was on her way to the cemetery to visit her son's grave when two riders approached her on a motorcycle and one of them attacked the elderly woman knocking her to the ground, causing her to sustain injuries to her head and face and lose consciousness. People who saw the incident took her to a hospital.

Eshghi is one of the signatories of the Statement of 14 Political Activists during the 2017–2018 Iranian protests requesting the resignation of Ali Khamenei from his post as the Supreme Leader of Iran and later the abolition of Islamic republic and establishment of a democratic secular government.

In 2014 a court sentenced a police officer named Akbar Taghizadeh, said to have been involved in Sattar Beheshti’s murder, to three years in prison, 74 lashes and two years of internal exile. But the officer was only charged with manslaughter, whereas Sattar’s family and loved ones, including Eshghi, insist it was premeditated murder. Eshghi holds Khamenei personally responsible for her son’s death.

Eshghi was among a group of women who met with former EU foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton during her 2014 visit to Tehran.

Gohar's son, 35-year-old Sattar, who was a little-known blogger was arrested at his home on October 30, 2012 by the Cyberpolice (FATA) for what the authorities said were "actions against national security on social networks and Facebook.

Gohar Eshghi (Persian: گوهر عشقی) is a civil activist, one of the Iranian Complainant Mothers and the mother of Sattar Beheshti, Iranian blogger who was killed in November 2011 due to severe torture while in custody of the Islamic Republic security forces in Iran. After the death of her son she made many efforts to bring his killer(s) to justice. She brought media attention to the circumstances of her son's death and caused a wide controversy in the ruling political system of Iran. In 2022, she was named in the BBC 100 Women list.

Gohar Eshghi was born in 1946 in Neishabour, a city in northeast Iran.