Iran: authorities still cracking down two years on from nationwide women's protests

Mahsa Amini’s death in custody on 16 September 2022 sparked the nationwide Woman Life Freedom protests followed by a brutal crackdown by the authorities

A ‘war on women’ has escalated with intensified enforcement of draconian forced veiling laws

‘The Iranian authorities have spent the past two years waging a propaganda campaign of denial and distortion’ - Diana Eltahawy 

People in Iran continue to endure the devastating consequences of the authorities’ brutal crackdown on the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising, Amnesty International said ahead of the two-year anniversary of the protests following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini that saw people across Iran challenge decades of oppression and gender-based discrimination.

No impartial, independent criminal investigations have taken place into the serious human rights violations and crimes under international law by the Iranian authorities during and in the aftermath of the September-December 2022 protests. 

During their initial crackdown, the security forces fired assault rifles, shot guns loaded with metal pellets and teargas canisters, and severely beat protesters with batons, resulting in the unlawful killing of hundreds of protesters and bystanders, including scores of children. The authorities have since sought to silence relatives seeking truth and justice for the killing of their loved ones through arbitrary detention, unjust prosecution, death threats and a campaign of relentless harassment.

Two years on, the authorities have escalated their assault on human rights, waging a “war on women and girls” through an increasingly violent crackdown on those defying draconian compulsory veiling laws, while intensifying the use of the death penalty to silence dissent. In April this year, the authorities launched a new campaign called the “Noor Plan” which has led to a visible increase of security patrols in public spaces to enforce compulsory veiling. 

The forced veiling crackdown has included dangerous car chases to stop women drivers, mass confiscation of their vehicles, imprisonment, as well as flogging and other penalties. On 22 July, police fired at a car 31-year-old Arezou Badri was travelling in, leaving her gravely injured. According to media reports, the police were seeking to confiscate the car as part of enforcing compulsory veiling laws. Last month, a disturbing video circulated on social media showing multiple law-enforcement agents assaulting two 14-year-old girls who had removed their headscarves. One of the girls, Nafas Hajisharif, said in a media interview: “They were pulling me by my hair, shouting at me and cursing … when they took me inside the van, they threw me onto the floor. One female agent hit me, put her knee on my throat, and hit my head hard”.

The all-out assault on women and girls who claim their human rights is being carried out by various state entities. The enforcers of Iran’s degrading and discriminatory compulsory veiling laws include the Moral Security Police, the traffic police, prosecution offices, the courts, the Ministry of Intelligence, the Revolutionary Guards, including its Basij forces, and plainclothes agents.

Meanwhile, the Iranian parliament is close to adopting a “Bill to Support the Culture of Chastity and Hijab”, which aims to legalise the authorities’ intensified assault on women and girls who defy compulsory veiling.

Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Middle East Deputy Director, said:

“The anniversary of the ‘Woman Life Freedom’ uprising is a haunting reminder that countless people in Iran are still reeling from the consequences of the authorities’ brutal crackdown. 

“The Iranian authorities have spent the past two years waging a propaganda campaign of denial and distortion to conceal evidence of their crimes and attempting to intimidate survivors and victims’ families into silence. 

“Victims, survivors and their relatives continue to be denied truth, justice and reparation for crimes under international law and other grave human rights violations committed by Iranian officials during and in the aftermath of the uprising.

“With no prospect for independent and impartial investigations domestically, it is imperative that states initiate criminal investigations into the crimes committed by the Iranian authorities through their domestic prosecution offices under the principle of universal jurisdiction.”

Death penalty as tool of oppression

Since the Woman Life Freedom uprising, the Iranian authorities have doubled down on their use of the death penalty, with last year seeing the highest number of executions for eight years as the authorities resorted to use of the death penalty as a tool of oppression to terrorise the public, including the persecuted Baluchi ethnic minority who have been disproportionately impacted by executions. 

The authorities have arbitrarily executed ten men since December 2022 in relation to the protests, including Reza (Gholamreza) Rasaei who was executed in secret on 6 August this year. The executions have been carried out following sham trials which relied on “confessions” extracted under torture and other ill-treatment, including sexual violence, confessions which were not independently and impartially investigated. More than a dozen people remain at risk of execution or of being sentenced to death in connection with the protests, including Mojahed Kourkouri.

This escalation includes the use of the death penalty against women on politically-motivated charges. Human rights defender Sharifeh Mohammadi and Kurdish civil society activist Pakhshan Azizi were recently convicted of “armed rebellion against the state” and sentenced to death by Revolutionary Courts in separate cases, solely due to their peaceful activism. Alarming reports indicate they were subjected to torture in detention. At least two other women - Wrisha Moradi and Nasim Gholami Simiyari - have also been tried for “armed rebellion against the state” in separate cases. 

Torture used against protesters

Over the past two years, the authorities have continued to deny that officials subjected those detained during the protests to torture and other ill-treatment, including rape and other forms of sexual violence. However, during the uprising Iran’s security and intelligence forces committed widespread torture and other ill-treatment against detained protesters. Last December, Amnesty detailed the harrowing use of rape, including gang rape, and other forms of sexual violence by the Iranian authorities as they sought to crush protests and terrorise and punish protesters, including children as young as 12.

In March this year, the High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is not an independent body and sits within the Iranian judiciary, responded to Amnesty’s investigation saying that Iran’s judiciary had investigated complaints and “found that in 28 out of 31 provinces, no complaints were filed under the headings of rape, assault and sexual harassment”. Amnesty has consistently documented how Iran’s prosecution and judicial authorities have dismissed or covered up evidence of sexual violence, including complaints by survivors. In the three provinces where officials said they’d received allegations of sexual violence by intelligence and security forces, the authorities claimed that the accused had pretended to be law-enforcement agents. However, a leaked official document from the Deputy Prosecutor of Tehran in October 2022 acknowledged that two suspected perpetrators of the rape of protesters were Revolutionary Guards agents, and said the case should be classified “completely secret”.