Zohreh Sadeghi: A Podcaster's Parasocial Nightmare

Zohreh Sadeghi was a 33-year-old young woman living in Redmond, Washington. She was an immigrant from Iran, a successful software engineer and a podcaster, who shared her lived experiences talking about how to find a job in the tech industry as a newcomer. In the summer of 2022, she would have the chance to meet one of her listeners, another Iranian immigrant, 38-year-old Ramin Khodakaramrezaei, who seemed to be enamored with her. At first, Zohreh was flattered, but when he began harassing her, calling her from different numbers, and even showing up at her home with gifts, she became terrified and filed an order of protection against him. 

Sadly, as we have seen time and again, orders of protection are pieces of paper that often do not protect victims against their stalkers. Just one week after the order was filed, Zohreh’s stalker would break into the home where she lived with her husband and shoot them in cold blood, before taking his own life.

There is an important lesson to be learned here regarding the toxic parasocial relationships some people have with their favourite content creators and the lack of protection available to victims of stalking and harassment.

Sources:

https://komonews.com/news/local/redmond-stalker-ramin-khodakaramrezaei-violent-no-contact-protection-restraining-order-couple-shot-killed-inside-home-invasion-northeast-89th-street-king-county-texas-washington-state-gun-crime-domestic-violence

https://www.stalkingawareness.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/SPARC_StalkngFactSheet_2018_FINAL.pdf

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11847291/Seattle-podcaster-ex-Google-engineer-husband-killed-1-6m-home-crazed-Texas-trucker.html

https://twitter.com/RyanTVnews/status/1634267875975512064/photo/1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4hxzZIKmeQ

https://www.crcvc.ca/docs/crimharass.pdf

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