People in Iran continue to endure the devastating consequences of the authorities’ brutal crackdown on the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising amid systematic impunity for crimes under international law, Amnesty International said today, ahead of the two-year anniversary of the protests that saw people across Iran challenge decades of oppression and gender-based discrimination.
No effective, impartial and independent criminal investigations have taken place into the serious human rights violations and crimes under international law by Iranian authorities during and in the aftermath of the nationwide protests of September-December 2022, including security forces’ extensive and unlawful use of force and firearms. 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, and life-changing injuries to many more. The authorities have sought to silence relatives seeking truth and justice for the unlawful killings of their loved ones through arbitrary detention, unjust prosecution, death threats and other relentless harassment.
Two years on, the authorities have also further 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 and have intensified their use of the death penalty to silence dissent.
“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. 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,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“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. 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.”
Intensified ‘war on women’
As part of their ongoing efforts to quash the powerful women’s rights movement against compulsory veiling that intensified following the death in custody of Mahsa/Jina Amini and the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising, Iranian authorities launched a new nationwide campaign called the “Noor Plan” in April 2024. Since, there has been a visible increase of security patrols on foot, motorbikes, car and police vans in public spaces to enforce compulsory veiling.
The crackdown has also included dangerous car chases to stop women drivers on the road, mass confiscation of their vehicles, imprisonment, as well as flogging and other penalties amounting to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
On 22 July 2024, agents from Iran’s police force fired lethal ammunition at a car 31-year-old Arezou Badri was travelling in, leaving her gravely injured. According to media reports the agents were seeking to confiscate the car as part of enforcing compulsory veiling laws.
In August 2024, a disturbing video circulated on social media showing multiple agents violently 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. My head was stuck between the seats, and they were kicking the side of my torso.”
The all-out assault on women and girls who claim their human rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, religion, belief and autonomy, is being carried out by various state entities. The enforcers of Iran’s degrading and discriminatory compulsory veiling laws include the Moral Security Police (police amniat-e akhlaghi), traffic police, prosecution offices, courts, the Ministry of Intelligence, the Revolutionary Guards, including its Basij forces, and plainclothes agents.
Meanwhile, Iran’s parliament is nearing the adoption of a “Bill to Support the Culture of Chastity and Hijab”, which aims to legalize the authorities’ intensified assault on women and girls who defy compulsory veiling.
Ramped up use of the death penalty
Since the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising, Iranian authorities have doubled down on their use of the death penalty, with 2023 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 terrorize the public, including the persecuted Baluchi ethnic minority who have been disproportionately impacted by executions.
Authorities have arbitrarily executed 10 men since December 2022 in relation to the September-December 2022 protests, including Reza (Gholamreza) Rasaei who was executed in secret on 6 August 2024.
The executions were carried out following grossly unfair sham trials which relied on “confessions” extracted under torture and other ill-treatment, including sexual violence, that were not independently and impartially investigated.
Over a dozen people remain at risk of execution or 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” (baghi) and sentenced to death by Revolutionary Courts in separate cases, solely due to their peaceful activism. Alarming reports indicate they were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in detention. At least two other women, Wrisha Moradi and Nasim Gholami Simiyari, have also been tried for “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi) in separate cases.
Weaponizing sexual violence
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.
During the uprising, Iran’s security and intelligence forces committed widespread torture and other ill-treatment against detained protesters. In December 2023, Amnesty International detailed the harrowing use of rape, including gang rape, and other forms of sexual violence by Iranian authorities as they sought to crush protests and terrorize and punish protesters, including children as young as 12.
In March 2024, the High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is not an independent body and sits within the judiciary, responded to Amnesty International’s investigation stating 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 International, however, has consistently documented how 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 had received allegations of sexual violence by intelligence and security forces, authorities claimed that these individuals pretended to be law enforcement agents. However, an October 2022 leaked official document from the Deputy Prosecutor of Tehran acknowledged that two suspected perpetrators of rape of protesters were Revolutionary Guards agents, and advised to classify the case as “completely secret”.
Crisis of systemic impunity
Iranian officials suspected of criminal responsibility for crimes under international law and other human rights violations have continued to evade justice.
In March 2024, the “Special Committee for Examining the Unrest of 2022”, a non-judicial and biased committee established by the late president to facilitate the official campaign of denial, distortion and cover-up, published its report. The committee claimed that security forces had “acted responsibly” in response to the protests, despite their consistent and well-documented use of unlawful force, including lethal force.
The UN Human Rights Council extended the mandate of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran (FFMI) in April 2024, but Iranian authorities persist in refusing to cooperate with the independent body and deny its members access to the country.
Amnesty International echoes the recommendations of the FFMI to all states to initiate criminal investigations into Iranian officials reasonably suspected of crimes under international law under the principle of universal jurisdiction, regardless of whether or not the accused is present in their territory, and to open “structural investigations into the general situation linked to the protests of 2022 without an identified suspect.”