Heartbreaking images of a little girl whose mother was shot by a stray bullet at home as she watched an anti-hijab protest from her roof have become a symbol of Iran’s agony.

The footage was recorded at the funeral of Fereshteh Ahmadi, 32, who had been watching the protests below when she was hit by gunfire from security police on 27th October

Shocking images show her inconsolable daughter Shion sobbing uncontrollably at her mother’s graveside at the service in Hamza Abad village, Mahabad, northern Iran.

With her hands clenching the dirt beside the grave, the youngster cries in agony as a man – apparently her father – tries to comfort her and then scoops her into his arms.

Relatives of Farishte said she was simply looking from the roof of the house down onto the street below where officers were tackling protesters when she was shot.

One online commentator named Hamidreza wrote in a tweet: “It doesn’t matter which way you turn, I keep finding myself coming back to the photo of Fereshte Ahmadi’s daughter and her clenched hands, and a fist full of dirt in the land where her mother paid the price of her freedom with her blood.”

Another named Mojtaba wrote: “From today, the daughter of Fereshta_Ahmadi became the daughter of all of us.”

Morgan Ortegas, the spokesperson of the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the Trump era, also wrote in a tweet with the photo of this girl: “I wish I could take this little girl home with me. This incident hurt me.”

But the comment provoked outrage from some who noted that the child did not need a new home, she had a home, what she needed was actually the United Nations to provide more support for Iranians.

One wrote: “If something had been done a week earlier, this girl’s mother would have been by her side.”