Monthly October 2022 – Stop arrest and torture of Iranian women
Stop beating to death, arrest, abduction and torture of young women in Iran
An appeal to the world for urgent action and concrete measures to stop torture and ill-treatment of Iranian women and youths for peaceful protest
They have been so brave that the world is now talking about them, the people of Iran and especially their courageous women. Even those who usually keep silent on human rights in Iran, the UN Security Council, the G7 nations, etc. everyone is taking a stand and extending a pledge of support.
But words are not enough. The clerical regime has killed at least 530 protesters and detained 25,000.
The Iranian women and youths have been advancing the protest movement every day and every hour for the past 50 days despite massive and brutal crackdown, at the cost of their lives, their health, and their freedom. They are enduring torture and various forms of mistreatment, including repeated rape in filthy, overcrowded prisons, with not enough food and limited contact with their families.
To get rid of their opponents, the mullahs even set several prisons on fire including the notorious Evin Prison on October 15.
High school girls are viciously battered in schools for tearing off the pictures of the mullahs’ supreme leaders or chanting anti-regime slogans. Several have died of severe injuries and internal bleeding.
The regime uses the so-called non-lethal weapons to kill the protesters. Dozens of young men and women have been killed by the blows of batons to their heads, and more have died of numerous shots by pellet guns.
Numerous footages circulate on social media of the ferocious treatment of protesters by security forces. Some methods are systematic. Large groups of security forces and plainclothes agents drag a sole protester on the ground or beat him on the spot, in the street and before the eyes of the public to force him into surrender.
Multiple agents sexually assault young women in the streets. Plainclothes agents abduct dissidents from the streets in bright day light. They kidnap university students from their dormitories at midnight when everyone is asleep. The list of brutalities and illegal conduct on the part of the ruling regime in the face of peaceful protesters goes on.
The clerical regime has already started handing down death sentences for the detained protesters, including teenagers and juveniles, in unfair trials where they have no access to legal representation.
And all we hear from the world are words. The Iranian women and youths are abandoned to be ripped apart at the hands of savages and beasts.
Here is an appeal to the world and the awake conscience of humanity to take concrete actions to stop the slaughter, bloodshed and massacre of Iranian protesters.
The people of Iran need to see their right to self-defense and struggle to overthrow the regime recognized. Women’s rights in Iran will never be restored without regime change. Iranian women need solidarity and support from around the world in concrete measures.
They need to see the Iranian regime’s embassies closed down, diplomatic and economic relations with the regime severed, including the sale of digital and technological knowhow used by security and intelligence services to identify and arrest the protesters. They need to see the agents and operatives of the clerical regime expelled from other countries, and they need access to free internet.
This NCRI Women’s Committee monthly report reviews some of the best acts of courage in October, and focuses on the vicious treatment of Iranian women and girls to bring to light the obstacles they face and the suffering they endure in advancing their struggle for freedom and equality.
Iran universities revived as bastions of freedom
University students have played a key role in the uprising that started on September 16 after reports that Mahsa Amini had died in hospital, there days after being arrested by the Morality Police for not fully observing the Hijab.
While students play a key role in advancing the uprising, female students at universities are particularly brave and outspoken.
On October 4, students of Khajeh Nasir University in Tehran chanted, “This is not a protest anymore; it is the beginning of a revolution!”
On October 8, 2022, the mullahs’ president Ebrahim Raisi visited the all-woman Al-Zahra University. He met strong protests from the young women studying at this university.
The brave young women, students of Al-Zahra University, chanted, “Raisi, get lost, mullahs must get lost!,” “We don’t want a murderer guest,“ and “Death to the oppressor, be it the shah or the (supreme) leader.” In this way, they foiled the regime’s orchestrated ceremony of welcoming Raisi.
At Amir Kabir University, students chanted in support of Nika Shakarami, the 17-year-old young woman viciously tortured and killed by security forces for taking part in Tehran protests on September 20. “They took away our Nika and brought back her lifeless body!”
At Melli University, students chanted, “Iran is drenched in blood, from Kurdistan to Tehran!”
On October 18, 2022, Tehran’s Allameh University students confronted a visiting regime official and forced him to leave.
Government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi was to deliver a speech to the students. The students called him a “scoundrel” and chanted, “We don’t want a murderer to be our guest!”
Vowing to continue the protests, Allameh University students, most girls, chanted, “Guns, tanks, machine guns are no longer effective!”
On October 24, students of Khajeh Nasir University in Tehran strongly opposed the presence of the Raisi government spokesman on their campus to hold a theatrical dialogue. Khajeh Nasir students vowed to overthrow Khamenei this year and chanted, “Murderer, get lost!” and “We don’t want a corrupt system, nor a murderer as a guest!” among dozens of other anti-regime slogans. Khajeh Nasir students thus forced the government spokesman to leave the university.
Official acknowledgments of widespread arrests of students and youths
In a highly classified document obtained by the Iranian Resistance, the Commander in Chief of the IRGC reports to Khamenei, the mullahs’ supreme leader, of 20,445 arrests during the first two weeks of the uprising.
Hossein Salami, the IRGC Commander in Chief, states in the report that the IRGC forces had arrested 9,654 persons, and the State Security Force (SSF) arrested 9,545 people. The Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) detained 1,246.
The report indicates that 42% of those arrested and detained were under 20 years old. Salami stresses in the report that a number of those detained had been organized by the People’s Mojahedin Organization (PMOI/MEK).
The state-run Etemadonline.ir wrote on October 22, “Between 5,000 to 6,000 persons, at least, have been arrested in the month-long street protests in Tehran, alone.”
Another state-run website, Khabarfoori.com, wrote on October 21, “At least more than 20,000 have been arrested in the recent unrest across the country.”
The mullahs’ Chief Justice, Mohseni Ejei, told his judges to avoid having mercy on anyone or issuing weak verdicts.
The mullahs’ Education Minister acknowledged that they had arrested students under 18, while refusing to mention their numbers. He said they are sending them to rehabilitation and psychiatric centers for correction. (Siasat state-run daily, October 11, 2022)
Seyyed Jalal Hosseini, political deputy to the Organization of the paramilitary IRGC Bassij, acknowledged, “70% of those arrested during (the recent protests) were youngsters under 20 years old. They have made extensive use of women and girls a lot (in the protests).” (The state-run Aftabnews.ir, October 20, 2022)
The Commander of the State Security Force of Qom Province also acknowledged at a news conference on October 11, 2022, that the age of 60 percent of those detained during the protests in Qom was between 15 and 22 years old. (akharinkhabar.ir, October 11, 2022)
A member of the mullahs’ parliament, Ahmad Alireza Beigi, in an interview with the semi-official Asriran.com website, acknowledged that 3,000 protesters arrested during the protests in Tehran province are detained in the Greater Tehran Penitentiary. They include 360 women and 200 high school students.
Beigi said he and other members of the Councils and Internal Affairs Committee had visited the Greater Tehran Penitentiary (GTP), also known as Fashafuyeh Prison, on Tuesday, October 18.
Beigi admitted, “The conditions of inmates is unconventional.”
Trapping university students inside campuses
October started with the regime’s blockading of universities.
On October 2, 2022, they trapped students inside the parking lot of Tehran’s prestigious Sharif University of Technology. Firing live ammunitions, security forces rounded up at least 60 students, according to semi-official media. They used ambulances to transfer the arrested students to detention center.
The day before, they did the same thing at the University of Tabriz, northwestern Iran. Tabriz students, however, broke the university’s gate and the siege of the State Security Force, drawing the protests into the cities.
The regime’s IRGC troops and special guards surrounded the Technical Faculty building in Tehran and the Azad University of Mashhad, on October 29. They did not let the students come out. Locals rushed to these universities to help release the students imprisoned inside the universities.
On October 30, after the IRGC Commander in Chief warned students against continuing their protests, the IRGC, Bassij, and plainclothes agents openly attacked the protesting students. They opened fire on students on the campus of the northern branch of Tehran’s Azad University, in the Girls’ School of Technology of Sanandaj, and at Tehran University’s School of Psychology in Gisha.
They attacked the students with tear gas and live ammunition but met firm resistance.
Abduction of students from dormitories
Having failed to suppress student protests in universities, Khamenei’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and plainclothes agents attacked dozens of universities and dormitories on October 29.
They used pellet guns, live ammunition, and tear gas, and abducted the students, particularly the female students. Shocking footages of such violent abductions later emerged on social media.
On Saturday night, October 29, Mahshid Moshashaii was arrested at a student dormitory in Kermanshah and taken to an unknown location.
Agents of the Intelligence Department in Sanandaj attempted to arrest some female students from the Fereshtegan Dormitory on Sunday night, October 30. However, university professors went to their aid and prevented the agents.
Ayda Moradbeigi, Kimia Jamshidi, and Houra Badihi are also among the abducted students.
Plainclothes agents of the intelligence services also kidnapped Fatemeh Mashhadi Abbas, a dentist and an associate professor at Melli (Beheshti) University, on October 19, 2022. The news and the video of this kidnapping were published on October 22.
Ruthless crackdown on high school girls
High school girls have been particularly active during the nationwide protests. They held anti-regime protests in schools across Iran. Some took to the streets and chanted slogans against Ali Khamenei, the mullahs’ supreme leader. They chanted, “This year the regime is overthrown,” and “We will take back Iran!”
In Gohardasht, school girls confronted a regime official and forced him to leave the school while shouting, “Shame on you!”
The clerical regime reacted with utmost brutality toward the young girls who dared to speak out against the regime and refuse to abide by their orders.
Following are reports on some major incidents involving military crackdown on students in high schools.
On September 19, 2022, armored vehicles entered Tamaddon High School for Girls in Bukan, Iranian Kurdistan, and attacked the students.
In the wake of protests by students at Bayan High School for girls in Mahabad, Iranian Kurdistan. The high school’s principal, Sultan Eassavi called the security forces and asked them to come to this private school. In the meantime, the principal locked the door and imprisoned the students inside the school until the agents arrived and arrested 29 girls.
An eyewitness reported the violent arrest of Parvaneh Salehnia, a senior student at 22 Bahman High School in Shahinshahr, Isfahan.
The school’s principal, Maryam Qomi, called the Intelligence Department to come and arrest Parvaneh. When they came, they went to the class and pulled her out as she was screaming loud. They tied her hands and dragged her by the hair. The principal said she could not continue her education because she has been taken to the Rehabilitation Center.
There are reports that three Baluch girls were arrested in Zahedan on October 4, 2022, after they protested against the bloody crackdown on Baluch protesters on Friday, September 30.
The three 15-year-old high school girls are Maryam Salarzehi, Massoumeh Alizehi, and Gergich.
On October 11, 2022, the State Security forces arrested Mandana Nemati, 15, an 11th grader at the Forghani High School of Karaj. Mandana had written an anti-regime slogan on the whiteboard in the classroom.
Mandana’s mother was at the school when the SSF agents arrived. So, they arrested both the mother and her daughter. There is no information available on the whereabouts of this mother and daughter.
Another five high school students were arrested in Sarvabad, Kurdistan, on October 12, 2022. IRGC Intelligence forces attacked the Somayyeh Girls High School and arrested Parva and Shenia Hosseini, both 17 years old. They also arrested three 17-year-old boys from Kazemi High School: Ashkan Ebrahimi, Arya Moradi, and Mobin Moradi.
A principal arrested for protecting her students
Agents of the Intelligence Ministry arrested the principal of a girls’ school in Karaj, for erasing and refusing to hand in their CCTV recordings to protect her students who had held a protest at school. The principal, Ms. Oghabneshin, was arrested at work and transferred to an undisclosed location on October 11, 2022.
Asra Panahi, 15, died due to internal bleeding caused by beating
Plainclothes agents attacked the Shahed High School for girls in Ardabil on October 13, 2022, in collaboration with the school’s principal, Ozra Fatehi. They brutalized the students who had refused to participate in a pro-regime ceremony to sing an anthem in praise of the mullahs’ supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
Some students were bussed to the ceremony against their will. But they refused to sing the anthem and instead chanted, “Death to the dictator.” After the bus returned the students, plainclothes agents were at work. They beat all the students and arrested seven of them.
The injured were taken to the Fatemi Hospital; however, Asra Panahi, 15, lost her life due to internal bleeding. Another student, identified only by the first name Aytak, went into a coma.
No information is available on the arrested girl students’ fate and place of detention. Some reports indicate that more students are missing.
The government forced Asra’s uncles and brother to make false confessions on TV, saying that she had passed away due to a heart condition. Her brother reportedly committed suicide after appearing on the state TV against his will and lying about his sister’s cause of death.
Other attacks on girls’ high school and arbitrary arrests
The semi-official daily Etemad also published a report on October 18, citing a father who talked about the attack on his daughter’s school in Tehran’s second district. Three students were terrified and taken to hospital after the raid.
On October 20, 2022, agents of the Department of Intelligence of Iranshahr arrested an 11th-grader in Bentol Hoda Sadr High School. The 15-year-old Baluch girl had expressed support for the ongoing Iran protests on social media. The school’s principal had notified the intelligence services, who arrested the girl at school. No information is available on the girls’ whereabouts. (Haalvash.org – October 23, 2022)
In another development, six high school girls were released on bail on October 23 after several days of detention.
The six girls were Kimia Ali-Moradi, Sondus Yaghubi, Hiro Nouri, Elina Ranjbar, Raha Sabouri, and Sara Karami. The 17-year-old girls were arrested in a security forces raid on their school.
The Department of Intelligence of Kermanshah had arrested the six girls in a raid on Effat High School in Javarud. On October 23, agents of the Department of Intelligence went to the high school, posing as a TV crew. They threatened the students and forced them to deny the arrests at their high school on camera.
On October 24, in Tehran, the principal of a girls’ high school called “Sadr” made the students take off their clothes to search and find if they had mobile phones. Parents gathered outside the high school protesting. Other reports said the principal had beaten the students, and some were in critical condition.
On October 25, a ninth grader in Iranshahr, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, was beaten by the State Security forces in class and in front of her classmates for tearing off Khomeini’s picture from her textbook. She died of severe injuries and bleeding on the same day. Parmis Hamnava studied in Parvin Etesami High School.
Reports from Isfahan indicate that dozens of arrested students in this province, including high school girls, have been have been taken to the Dolatabad Center for Reform and Training. They are detained together with children detained on prostitution, addiction, drug-trafficking, and robbery charges in a silo. At least 40 of these juveniles are suffering from HIV AIDs.
Forced disappearances and arbitrary arrests
Kurdish media have identified at least 56 students abducted in Kurdistan, including 16 girl students. They are Atusa Hosseini, 18; Hediyeh Mihami, 18; Raheleh Jafari, 18; Alan Hosseini, 16 from Sanandaj; Zana Saberi, 17 from Saqqez; Delnia Khani, 17 from Dehgolan; Parva Hosseini, 17; Shenia Hosseini, 17 from Sarvabad; Ayda Darvish, 17 from Paveh; Kimia Alimoradi, 17; Elina Ranjbar, 17; Raha Sabouri, 17; Sara Karami, 17 from Javanrud; Alaheh Momeni, 16; Nilufar Qassemi, 17; and Sara Shirdel, 18 from Ilam.
Horrific brutality, sexual assaults against women, protesters
The clerical regime has been brutalizing women on the streets, even sexually assaulting them. They are trying in the way to terrify women and force them to back off from leading the protests.
They are doing the same thing to young men, making very violent arrests on the streets. The regime has also stationed tanks in some cities and used helicopters to confront the protests.
Such measures are only the last resort efforts of a regime on its last leg.
In mid-October footage circulated in social media showing the morality police in Tabriz violently arresting a woman and hauling her into a van.
Another video shows a gang of morality police and plainclothes agents sexually assaulting at least two young women at night.
A third video shows dozens of motor patrols surrounding a young woman to protect their commanders while assaulting her and preventing the public from noticing and coming to aid.
Over the past 40 years, the regime has tested such atrocities in prisons against women from the opposition PMOI/MEK and other dissident groups. A well-known practice of the mullahs, IRGC, and MOIS to break the resistance of Iranian women and force them to give up.
Arbitrary killings and bludgeoning to death
In the meantime, there were more cases of young women dying due to heavy blows of batons to their heads.
According to the Kurdish media, Negin Abdolmaleki, 21, from Qorveh, was murdered by security forces during a protest in Hamedan on October 11, 2022. They used batons and repeatedly hit her in the head. A severely injured Negin returned to the Industrial University of Hamedan dormitory, where she died on October 13, due to severe bleeding.
Negin Abdolmaleki was a medical engineering student at the Industrial University of Hamedan.
Another was the case of Arnika Qaem Magham died of severe injuries in a Tehran hospital on October 22, 2022.
Social media posts also reported the death of Arnika Qaem Magham, 17, in a military hospital in Tehran due to consecutive blows of a hard object (i.e., baton) to her head and breaking of a neck disc. The death came in the wake of similar cases of Nika Shakarami, Sarina Esmailzadeh, and Mahsa Amini who were bludgeoned to death.
The NCRI Women’s Committee will publish a separate report on this method of arbitrary killings during the Iran uprising.
The list of female martyrs of the Iran uprising is a long one soon to be published. However, there were several cases that need to be addressed in this monthly report.
First, the case of 8-year-old Mona Naghib.
Agents of the Ministry of Intelligence opened fire on a moving vehicle in Saravan, killing a little Baluch girl and wounding another, on Sunday, October 23, 2022.
The two little Baluch girls were traveling in a Peugeot 405 and on their way to school when security forces opened fire on the car, hitting the 8-year-old Mona Naghib in the head. (Haalvash.org – October 23, 2022)
It was also announced that Dr. Parisa Bahmani, a general surgeon, died in a hospital after being shot and wounded in the doctor’s protest in Tehran, on October 26.
However, dozens of motorcycle patrols and police attacked the doctors’ gathering and opened fire on them. Dr. Bahmani was among those wounded. She died in the hospital on Friday, October 28, 2022.
Fereshteh Ahmadi, 32, the mother of two young children, was shot and killed in Mahabad while standing on the balcony of her home on October 27, 2022. The clerical regime’s security forces shoot people in the cars and behind windows to prevent filming of their brutal crackdown on protesters.
Professor Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, addressed the Third Committee session at the United Nations.
He said the Iranian authorities responded with brutal oppression to protests that started five weeks ago, and that at least 215 people had died, and thousands of people arrested, including human rights defenders, students, lawyers and journalists.
He expressed alarm over the conditions of women and called for the establishment of an international investigation into Iran’s human rights abuses leading up to and following the death of Mahsa Amini, which triggered a wave of popular protests.
In the absence of any domestic accountability channels, Dr. Rehman stressed that the international community has a responsibility to take action and address impunity for human rights abuses perpetrated in the country.
