The protests in Iran have been going on for over two months and at least 300 people have been killed, according to estimates by human rights organizations and the United Nations.
According to Raha Bahraini, area expert at Amnesty International, at least half of the dead are from minority groups. She fears the number is higher, but the organization has not yet been able to confirm the identities of all the dead.
– The Iranian regime has little respect for its population, and even less for minority groups that exist in the country, she tells SVT.
Two weeks ago released Amnesty a report in which they stated that more than 100 dead are from Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan and that 50 dead are from the Kurdish areas of Iran’s northwestern region, including in Sanadaj and Mahabad. The areas are home above all to the Baluch and Kurd ethnic minorities, and that they are particularly affected is also confirmed by the Oslo-based human rights organization Iran Human Rights (IHR), which maps the dead and injured in Iran.
Many of those killed are young, like the Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Jina Amini, whose death sparked the protests.
Massacres in Sistan and Baluchistan
One day that stands out as extra bloody is September 30, 2022. In just a few hours, at least 80 people, including 12 children, were shot dead in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan province. According to information to Amensty, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini’s paramilitary Basij forces are behind the attack.
– Armed men from these groups are said to have patrolled the city’s streets in both military clothing and civilian Baluchi clothing, says Raha Bahraini.
Long history of discrimination
The deadly violence in minority-dominated areas is a manifestation of the discrimination and violence these minorities have faced in Iran for decades, believes Raha Bahraini.
– Year after year, Amnesty has warned that discrimination against these groups also occurs in the use of the death penalty and in areas such as education, work, housing and in political offices.