Alborz Province

Alborz Province has featured repeatedly in the 2026 Iran conflict, most sharply through Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, one of Iran's largest detention facilities and a site of political and protest-related executions; the war-era tally has reached at least 404 according to human rights monitor Hengaw. On 20 April 2026 Hengaw confirmed the execution of Ali Fahim there, the fourth in a single protest-related case. Weeks earlier, on 2 April 2026, air strikes destroyed the B1 bridge over the Karaj River during the Sizdah Bedar holiday, killing at least 13 people gathered on its banks; the toll rose as rescue operations continued.

Alborz is a province in north-central Iran, adjacent to Tehran, created in 2010 when it was separated from Tehran Province. Its capital, Karaj, is Iran's third-largest city, a major industrial and manufacturing centre, and the province has a population of roughly 3 million. Alborz sits at the foot of the Alborz mountain range, which separates Tehran from the Caspian coast, and its transport corridors link the capital to that coast.

The province's proximity to Tehran and its motorway connections make Ghezel Hesar administratively convenient for processing cases from the capital's security apparatus, and executions there during the war reflect the regime's use of capital punishment as a tool of social control. Alborz has also absorbed part of the wider displacement caused by strikes elsewhere, with Iranians from other strike zones seeking refuge in its suburbs. It has featured in domestic reporting on power and water outages linked to summer peak demand and fuel-card quota changes, though the Persian-calendar conversions behind that reporting have not reconciled to a single Gregorian date.