A’investigation of the Guardian he recounted several cases in Iran where the security forces engaged in the repression of protests against the regime have shot at demonstrators, especially women, on vital organs such as eyes and genitals.
The investigation, by journalists Deepa Parent and Ghoncheh Habibiazad, is based on interviews with 10 doctors and nurses who over the past few months have treated injured demonstrators in secret – sometimes at the demonstrators’ homes – to avoid being arrested: in almost three months of protests, the regime had many people arrested, accusing them of showing solidarity with the protesters. For the same reasons the doctors heard by the Guardian they agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity.
The doctors in question said they first noticed the shots to the faces and genitals of the protesters when they realized that the women came to them with injuries very different from those commonly inflicted on men, who usually presented with bullets lodged in their legs. , in the buttocks or back. The doctors then shared with the Guardian also several photos – some of which were published in the investigation – showing the bullets of the security forces driven deep into the flesh of the treated people, presumably after being shot at close range.
The photos obtained from Guardian show in particular wounds caused by dozens of small metal or plastic spheres fired from certain types of weapons which according to Brian Castner, Amnesty International’s military consultant questioned by the Guardianare hunting weapons and cannot be used by police to handle protests.
One of these photos, taken with X-rays, portrays dozens of small metal balls embedded in a skull. The doctors interviewed said that it happened very frequently to receive women, but also men and children, affected in particular to the eyes, with damages that in all probability will be permanent and which in some cases have already caused a partial or total loss of vision: the Guardian he wrote that he had also seen a photograph showing dozens of metal balls stuck in the eyeballs of some protesters (this photo was not published in the investigation), and other photographs showing damage to the eyes and face.
The authors of the investigation also shared these photographs with Iain Hutchison, UK facial surgeon and founder of Saving Faces, a foundation that deals with research on facial surgery: Hutchison confirmed that the photos portray “people hit point-blank by bullets at pellets fired directly into both eyes, resulting in severe permanent damage or blindness.” According to Hutchinson, the type of injuries suggest that the demonstrators were “kept to the ground or still, without the possibility of moving their heads”.
One case of someone shot in the eye that had attracted a lot of attention in Iran was that of Ghazal Ranjkesh, a student from the coastal city of Bandar Abbas, who days ago was shot in the right eye on her way home, presumably crossing an area in which the protests were underway: Ranjkesh had denounced the matter on his Instagram profile with a post, now removed.
To denounce cases like these, in November, some 400 Iranian ophthalmologists sent a letter to Mahmoud Jabbarvand, general secretary of the Iranian Society of Ophthalmology, protesting what they see as a systematic and deliberate attempt to blind protesters.
One of the doctors heard by Guardian he then recounted having treated a woman of about 20 who had two metal spheres stuck in her genitals and another ten in her inner thigh: the latter «were removed rather easily, but it was much more difficult to extract the two spheres stuck in the genitals, located between the urethra and the vaginal opening,” said the doctor. The woman in question had told him that she was demonstrating when a group of officers surrounded her and shot at her, intentionally aiming at her genitals and thighs.
Unlike Hutchison, Amnesty International’s Castner said it was difficult to tell from photos alone which parts of the body were targeted by police officers, as the bullets in question are fired “in a spray pattern” and end up hitting different places. .
Some Iranian doctors, however, have accused the Iranian security forces of ignoring the practices they should adopt in handling the protests, which include targeting the feet and legs to avoid damaging vital organs, aiming instead at intentionally against faces, genitals and important organs. The Guardian contacted the Iranian Foreign Ministry for clarification on the matter, without receiving a response so far.
Protests in Iran began nearly three months ago after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while under arrest for not wearing a headscarf properly.
As the days went by, the demonstrations turned into an exceptional, transversal and participatory revolt against the regime, which repressed the demonstrations with extreme violence: thousands of people were arrested and several hundred were killed, including some minors. In some cases the demonstrators were sentenced to death (the first death sentence was carried out yesterday, against a 23-year-old demonstrator who was hanged because he was accused of injuring a policeman)
Among other things, Iranian security forces have even gone so far as to use ambulances to infiltrate protests and arrest protesters, then beat them inside the vehicles or drive them away, a practice that would violate international standards on the impartial provision of treatment. medical.
