'They used our hijabs to gag us': Iran protesters tell of rapes, beatings and torture by police

Trigger Warning

‘They used our hijabs to gag us’: Iran protesters tell of rapes, beatings and torture by police


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More than 500 people have been killed since protests erupted following Mahsa Amini’s death in custody. Composite: Getty/AFP

As human rights organisations report an escalation in the brutal treatment of detainees, we speak to some of those who say they have suffered at the hands of state security forces.


On the evening of 15 October 2022, when the street protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini were at their peak, 25-year-old Dorsa* was stopped at a checkpoint while driving through a city in the country’s northern Gilan province.The checkpoint was chaotic; 25 to 30 heavily armed security officers were shouting and screaming at people to get out of their vehicles. Dorsa was with her sister and two male friends. Their car was searched and when two cans of spray paint were found in her sister’s bag, all hell broke loose. The sisters claim they were blindfolded and had their hands tied behind their back before they were pushed into the rear of a police car. Dorsa says they were taken to a building where they were forced to sign a confession saying they had been protesting, before being separated. Alone in an interrogation room, Dorsa says she could hear the screams of her two male friends being tortured nearby.
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A screengrab from a video filmed in October 2022 shows female protesters being roughly handled by Iranian security forces in Gilan province. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

More than four months after the death of Mahsa Amini, the Kurdish woman who died in custody after being arrested for incorrectly wearing her hijab, the Iranian authorities’ attempts to crush nationwide protests have seen more than 500 people killed by security forces, including 70 children. Four protesters have so far been executed by the state, with many more facing the death sentence.
According to the latest report by Human Rights Activists in Iran, 19,603 individuals have been arrested in connection with the protests and remain in detention.
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This week, Amnesty International released a detailed report confirming allegations of rape, violence and “extreme torture” of protesters in detention. Amnesty International says that three young protesters – Arshia Takdastan, 18, Mehdi Mohammadifard, 19, and Javad Rouhi, 31 – were subjected to “gruesome torture including floggings, electric shocks, being hung upside down and death threats at gunpoint”. The human rights organisation also said that one of the men was raped and another sexually assaulted by guards while in detention.


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A still from a video reportedly showing security forces firing on the faculty of medical sciences at Kurdistan University in Sanandaj, October 2022. Photograph: UGC/AFP/Getty Images

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Human Rights Watch. . .

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Iranians at a metro station in Tehran fleeing as gunshots are heard, November 2022 Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

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“We weren’t even chanting slogans when male officers approached me and took me to a police van,” he says “There were two of them – one rubbed himself on my penis from the front, and the other assaulted me from behind. I still find it hard to talk about. I don’t even remember their faces. I don’t want to.” As the regime continues to hand down long prison sentences, protests have dwindled across the country. However, protests are continuing in the Kurdish regions and Sistan-Baluchistan province despite a growing crackdown by the security forces. Kamyar said the security forces believe sexually assaulting activists will stop them from protesting. “Somehow they think the humiliation is pinned on us. It’s on them. One of them told me, ‘It’s been 60 days and we have not been able to sleep because of you protesters.’ He slapped me after every insult,” he says. “But I don’t pity myself, I pity these men who are disgusting and live small lives. They should be the ones who feel humiliated, instead of us victims.”

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/feb/06/iran-protesters-police-rapes-beatings-and-torture