Child among protesters sexually assaulted in Iran, rights group says
HRW and Amnesty International warn that Tehran is using rape, sexual violence and torture to suppress dissent, continuing a pattern of violence following previous protests.
Content warning: This article contains references and descriptions of sexual violence and torture. Reader discretion is advised.
A child is one of two Iranian protesters previously held in Kermanshah who claimed they were sexually assaulted during detention, France-based NGO says Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) shared on Friday.
KHRN’s Rebin Rahmani said, “During the transfer, security forces touched their bodies with batons. They put pressure on the anal area with a baton over their clothes and beat them.” Guard.
Human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have warned in the wake of previous protests that Tehran has resorted to rape, sexual violence and torture as part of a pattern of violence to suppress dissent.
Nahid Naghshbandi, acting Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch, said after the deadly crackdown in 2022: “The brutality used by Iranian security forces against detained protesters, including rape and torture, is not only a horrific crime but also a weapon of injustice used to coerce detainees into false confessions.” Women, Life, Freedom protests.
“These methods are also a distorted and vile way of further stigmatizing and oppressing marginalized ethnic minorities.”
Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran, on January 9, 2026. Nationwide protests against failed economic policies began in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar in late December and spread to universities and other cities (Source: MAHSA/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Iran detains children as crackdown on protests continues
The network independently confirmed the identities of 20 children and teenagers arrested in Ilam, Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces, while the Iranian Teachers Union Coordination Council reported that at least 100 minors were arrested in Kermanshah province.
Announcing the names of 199 people whose fate is not yet known, the network shared that the families of those arrested complained about the authorities abducting their loved ones without judicial permission and using violence.
The group said the protesters, who were taken from Ilam province and transferred to the detention center in Ilam city’s central prison, were deprived of legal support and were subjected to torture. In the same province, regime forces were seen raiding a local hospital, where they detained injured protesters and stole the bodies of those killed.
The human rights group said it was currently investigating multiple reports of protesters killed in custody.
According to human rights group Hengaw, 40-year-old Soran Feyzizadeh was tortured to death in captivity and his family had to pay to have his body returned.
The full extent of Iran’s human rights violations remains unknown as internet shutdown hinders investigations
Investigations into the health of arrested protesters and atrocities committed by the Islamic regime were largely disrupted by Tehran’s internet shutdown.
The exact number of those killed is unknown, but an Iranian official confirmed to Reuters on Sunday that authorities had confirmed at least 5,000 people had been killed in protests in Iran.
While the official blamed Israel and the United States for the violence, he said, “The final death toll is not expected to rise sharply.”
Just as Tehran buried unnamed victims in the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery following the 1979 revolution, human rights activists and groups have warned that the piles of bodies may never be fully identified and buried.
In 2024, the United Nations special rapporteur noted that Tehran attempted to destroy the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in order to “hide or delete data that could potentially serve as evidence to avoid legal accountability” for its actions.
A video obtained by CNN revealed a makeshift morgue at the Kahrizak Forensic Medicine Center and the cries of families trying to find their missing loved ones among hundreds of corpses. BBC Verify has confirmed that some of the bodies laid out in bags were marked as unidentified in the footage, which it deemed too sensational to share.
