the methods of the security forces denounced by an NGO

Since mid-September, at least 500 people have been killed, according to a count by the NGO Iran Human Rights. Fourteen thousand people were also arrested, according to the United Nations. Of the death sentences were pronounced, demonstrators executed. But another way to repression used by regime forces is to injure protesters in the face. Many have lost at least one eye in these gatherings.

This week, a senior police commander questioned on this subject by a Tehran newspaper had denied the use of this practice, insisting on the good behavior of the security forces. But on social networks, a few forever damaged faces are displayed: women and men who have lost an eye, or even both, after having received a rubber bullet or pellets in the face.

The precise number of victims is difficult to establish. It is likely between 500 and 1,000 people, estimates Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based human rights organization investigating the ongoing crackdown. Its director, Mahmoud Amiry-Moghaddam, sees it as intentional acts by the police. ” It started at the very beginning of the movement, in the early days. This is why it is said to be a consistently applied policy. Especially since it happened in different regions of the country “, he believes.

Women mainly targeted

Many victims have been recorded in Tehran, but also in Mashhad, in the north, in Bandar Abbas, in the south, or in Sanandaj in the west. Among them, a large number of women. ” What is a bit surprising is the number of young women and girls that we were able to identify. When you take the number of people who are shot and killed, women are less than 5%. But here, 40 to 50% of the victims are young women “, continues Mahmoud Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of Iran Human Rights.

This practice is not entirely new to the Iranian forces. Already last year, Iran Human Rights saw similar injuries during a peasant movement in the Isfahan region.

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