Solidarity demonstration in Melbourne, September 2022
Deaths during the Mahsa Amini protests refer to those people who were killed due to Iran's nationwide protests of 2022, triggered by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian Jina Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, in a Tehran hospital under suspicious circumstances.[1]
The Guidance Patrol, the religious morality police of Iran's government, arrested Amini for allegedly not wearing the hijab in accordance with government standards. The Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran stated that she had a heart attack at a police station, collapsed, and fell into a coma before being transferred to a hospital.[2][3] However, eyewitnesses, including women who were detained with Amini, reported that she was severely beaten and that she died as a result of police brutality,[4][5][6] which was denied by the Iranian authorities.[7] The assertions of police brutality, in addition to leaked medical scans,[8] led some observers to believe Amini had a cerebral hemorrhage or stroke due to head injuries received after her arrest.[9]
Documentation
During the protests that followed, many young women and men, including children, were shot or killed in the street or executed in prison without trial, or died as a result of mistreatment and torture. The perpetrators are usually male members of the religious police, the paramilitary Basijis, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) or prison guards.[10] The killings and mistreatments are being carried out systematically on orders from the regime to use ruthless violence to suppress the protests and deter the population from further participation. They are internationally regarded as serious human rights crimes.[11]
Number of protesters killed by province and county.
As of October 5, 2022, HRANA registered 342 civil protest gatherings in all 31 provinces of Iran, including 266 street protests in 105 major cities and 76 student protests in all 69 universities in the country. The police and Basijis used tear gas, rubber and metal bullets and live ammunition to disperse the gatherings, killing hundreds of unarmed people. In the first three weeks, HRANA initially identified 200 fatalities, including 18 children and adolescents, largely through analysis of video footage and testimonies received from Iran.[1]
By the end of October 2022, NCRI announced 280 identified protesters were killed in the protests and put the total death toll at 450 so far,[13][bettersourceneeded] similar to IHRM.[14] By November 2, 2022, IHR registered at least 277 people killed in the protests and in custody, including 40 children. IHR is investigating numerous unconfirmed reports of further killings and also expects dozens of executions of those arrested on arbitrary death sentences.[15] As of November 5, 2022, at least 314 people have been killed in protests in Iran, including 47 minors and 38 security forces, according to HRANA and more than 14,000 were arrested.[16] Following a massacre by regime forces in Khash on November 4, 2022, NCRI reported 324 identified fatalities.[17] By December 17, 2022, at least 469 people have been killed. 374 of the deaths were men and 63 of the deaths were children and 32 were women. 39 protesters are also at risk of execution[18]
According to the Iranian government, around 200 people have died during the protest.[19] Human rights activists assume a high number of unreported deaths.[11] A reason for this is that the Iranian regime arbitrarily arrests or kidnaps thousands of people, kills many without a process of law, and instead of handing over their bodies to their relatives, disappears them. Media research and criminal investigations are forbidden under the dictatorship of Iran, and are being done illegally and then associated with great risks and danger for witnesses, investigative journalists, human rights activists and lawyers.[20]
List of victims
The documentation from HRANA (1), IranWire (2), Der Spiegel (3), Amnesty International (4), Iran Human Rights (5) and NCRI (6) regularly includes the names of the fatalities and, where ascertained, their ages and the date, place and cause of death. The following list presents the most important published information in chronological order.
People killed by regime officials in protests in Iran since September 16, 2022
She was arrested because a headscarf had slipped and was transferred to a hospital after an hour's detention. She died there after three days in a coma, probably as a result of severe blows to the head. A CT scan of it shows a skull fracture, cerebral hemorrhage and bruising.[21]
The mother of three was shot by Basijis. A photo of her youngest daughter with her hair shaved and no hijab at her grave was widely shared on social media.[25]
Standing on top of a dumpster at the head of a student protest downtown, she burned her hijab, was chased by Basijis, disappeared without a trace and was handed over dead to her family nine days later. She allegedly fell from an unoccupied house; however, according to an autopsy, she suffered many broken bones from severe beatings. According to witnesses, she was interrogated by the IRGC and then taken to Evin prison.[28]
Cerebral hemorrhage as a result of a shot in the back of the head. Original cause of death listed as suicide: this was refuted by the release of his burial certificate.
She was beaten to the head with a club. The judiciary claimed that she committed suicide by jumping from the roof of a house. In order to be able to bury the dead woman, her family was not allowed to open the coffin and had to confirm the information given by the authorities under death threats from the IRGC.
Milad was shot as he rode a motorbike after taking part in protests in the capital. His parents alleged security forces pressured them to go along with state media reports that he was a Basij member killed by "rioters" and that security forces threatened to kill their two other sons and bury Milad's body secretly in a remote place if they did not co-operate.
IRGC seriously injured him, transported him to an unknown location and handed him over dead to his family the following day. The dead man had severe neck wounds, possibly from torture.
The Kurdish doctoral student was shot in the head several times during a protest, fell into a coma and died in a hospital. Her family was not allowed to bury her in Marivan. The Secret Service ordered a funeral without anyone present.
Haghi participated in the anti-government protest that took place in Tabriz on November 16, 2022, as part of the 2022 Iran protests.[66] Government forces began to disperse the demonstration by using violence against the demonstrators. After the intervention of the police, Haghi took refuge in a building to escape the violence.[67] Several officers who were chasing her followed her into the building and shot her in the back of the head, killing her.[68][69][70][71][72] Her body was then thrown from a high-rise building.[73][74][75]
Majid Tavakoli is an Iranian student leader, human rights activist and political prisoner. He used to be a member of the Islamic Students' Association at Tehran's Amirkabir University of Technology, where he studied shipbuilding. He was arrested at least three times by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, during the student protests over the disputed Presidential Election of 2009. In response to allegations that he cross-dressed as a disguise to avoid arrest, a campaign protesting his imprisonment featured men posting photos of themselves wearing hijab.
The Guidance Patrol or morality police is an Islamic religious police force and vice squad in the Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Guidance Patrol enforce Sharia–Islamic law—per laws in Iran; this is most often the enforcement of Islamic dress code, such as ensuring women in the country wear hijabs. The Guidance Patrol was formed in 2005 as a successor organisation to the older Islamic Revolution Committees, and reports to the Supreme Leader.
On 16 September 2022, 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, also known as Jina Amini, died in a hospital in Tehran, Iran, under suspicious circumstances. The Guidance Patrol, the religious morality police of Iran's government, arrested Amini for allegedly not wearing the hijab in accordance with government standards. The Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran stated that she had a heart attack at a police station, collapsed, and fell into a coma before being transferred to a hospital. However, eyewitnesses, including women who were detained with Amini, reported that she was severely beaten and that she died as a result of police brutality, which was denied by the Iranian authorities. The assertions of police brutality, in addition to leaked medical scans, led some observers to believe Amini had a cerebral hemorrhage or stroke due to head injuries received after her arrest.
Civil unrest and protests against the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran associated with the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini began on 16 September 2022 and carried on into 2023, but were said to have "dwindled" or "died down" by spring of 2023. As of September 2023, the "ruling elite" of Iran was said to remain "deeply entrenched" in power. The protests were described as "unlike any the country had seen before", the "biggest challenge" to the government, and "most widespread revolt", since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Farjad Darvishi, a 23-year old Iranian man, was killed on 19 September 2022 by police in the Waliasr town of Urmia, Iran.
Hadis Najafi was an Iranian woman who died after being struck by gunfire in Mehrshahr, Karaj, during the 2022 Iranian protests following the death of Mahsa Amini. Her death has been widely reported in international media, and like Amini before her, Najafi also became a symbol of female empowerment and the ongoing protests against the Iranian government.
On 23 September 2022, Iranian teenager Sarina Esmailzadeh died of alleged severe beating on the head by security forces during the Mahsa Amini protests in Karaj, Alborz province, Iran, according to human rights organizations. She was 16 years old.
This is a broad timeline of the ongoing series of protests against the government of Iran, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on 16 September 2022. Amini had fallen into a coma after having been detained by the Guidance Patrol, allegedly for wearing an "improper" hijab—in violation of Iran's mandatory hijab law—while visiting Tehran from Saqqez.
Hengaw or Hengaw Organization for Human Rights is a Norway-based Kurdish human rights NGO founded in 2016 for the purpose of reporting on the human rights violations against Kurds in Iran. Their reporting on the treatment of Kolbars has been used by the United Nations. Since 2022, their reporting on the crackdown of protesters in Iranian Kurdistan during the Mahsa Amini protests in 2022 has been used by various international media outlets. Hengaw is one of the media close to PKK. Several members of Hengaw's board of directors are from the armed forces (guerrillas).
The ongoing Mahsa Amini protests broke out following the death of Mahsa Amini while she was under arrest by the Guidance Patrol of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Reactions to her death and the following crackdown on protestors by law enforcement are both domestic and international.
Kian Pirfalak was a nine-year-old Iranian boy who was killed in Izeh during the crackdown on the Mahsa Amini protests. He was shot by government security forces while sitting in his parents' vehicle during the attack on Izeh market. His father, Meysam Pirfalak, was critically injured in the assault and was hospitalized.
Mohsen Shekari was a 22-year-old Iranian man who was executed by the state of Iran after being convicted of injuring a member of Iran's Basij militia and being accused of Moharebeh, an Arabic word translating to "waging war against God".
Aida Rostami was a 36-year-old Iranian physician who was allegedly kidnapped, fatally beaten, and killed by security forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran for treating protesters who were injured during the Mahsa Amini protests. In light of rising demands and threats on Iranian hospitals and medics to assist security forces in the middle of the protests, Aida Rostami has emerged as an inspirational figure among medics associated with the Mahsa Amini protests.
Mohammed Ghobadlou was an Iranian man executed for his participation in the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests. He was charged with murder and moharebeh, which translates to "waging war against God", and was sentenced to death. He was accused of running over Iranian special police units in Parand city with a car, killing Farid Karampour Hassanvand and injuring five of police units.
Mohammad Mehdi Karami was a 21-year-old Iranian-Kurdish man who was executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran for his involvement in the Mahsa Amini protests. He was convicted of Fisad-e-filarz for allegedly being involved in the killing of a Basij militiaman during protests in Karaj commemorating the 40-day anniversary of Hadis Najafi's death. Karami was executed alongside 39-year-old volunteer children's coach Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, another man who was also convicted of Fisad-e-filarz for his alleged involvement in the same killing. Both Karami and Hosseini asserted their innocence, and human rights organizations have accused Iranian authorities of using "shoddy evidence" to convict them.
Conservative estimates reported by ophthalmologists in November 2022 stated there had been 580 confirmed cases of significant eye injuries during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests triggered by the dead-in-custody of Mahsa "Jina" Amini. The actual number of injuries is likely much higher. The widespread nature of the eye injuries across the country and the number of cases reported demonstrates a systematic nature to these attacks.
Nazila Maroufian is an Iranian civil activist, political prisoner and journalist who works for the news media Roydad 24.
Armita Geravand was a 17-year-old Iranian girl who fell into a coma on the Tehran Metro on 1 October 2023. She was held in the intensive care unit of an Army hospital where she was declared brain dead on 22 October 2023, and declared dead on 28 October. This incident has been compared to the death of Mahsa Amini and called "unbearable" by the German foreign minister.
Mahsa Amini, also known as Jîna Emînî, was an Iranian woman whose arrest in Tehran for opposing mandatory hijab and subsequent death in police custody sparked a wave of protests throughout Iran. People and governments around the world reacted widely to her death. Her death sparked widespread protest in Iranian society, resulting in major protests in various cities in Iran and acts of solidarity around the world. Amini's death ignited the global Woman, Life, Freedom movement, rooted in her Kurdish background, which demands the end of compulsory hijab laws and other forms of discrimination and oppression against women in Iran. She and the movement were selected as candidates for the Sakharov Prize in 2023 by European Parliament for defending freedom and human rights.
The Women, Life, Freedom movement in Iran is a protest movement that started in September 2022 after the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini, a young Kurdish woman who was arrested by the morality police for not wearing hijab correctly. The movement demands the end of compulsory hijab laws and other forms of discrimination and oppression against women in Iran. The movement has been met with brutal repression by the Iranian authorities, who have killed hundreds of protesters and arrested thousands more. The movement has also gained international support and recognition, and has been awarded the 2023 Freedom Award by Freedom House.
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