“Sexual violence is one of the most brutal weapons in the Iranian authorities’ arsenal to humiliate protesters,” said Julia Duchrow, Secretary General of Amnesty International in Germany. The victims bear deep physical and mental scars. However, the perpetrators within the secret services and security forces do not have to justify their torture. “Not a single one of them has been charged yet,” Duchrow continued.

According to the report, the victims included girls and women who refused to wear the headscarf, which is mandatory in Iran, as well as boys and men who took to the streets in protest. Three of the victims were minors: a 14-year-old girl and two boys aged 16 and 17.

According to reports, the security forces raped their victims with, among other things, batons, glass bottles and hoses. The rapes took place not only in detention facilities, but also in schools and homes. Sexual violence was also carried out in the form of beatings on the private parts and being forced to strip naked.

The majority of victims refrained from filing a complaint. The reason for this is the “fear that further suffering might be caused to them,” but also the belief that the justice system is primarily “an instrument of oppression,” the report continues. According to the report, members of the Revolutionary Guard as well as a paramilitary militia and several police units were involved in the sexual abuse.

Amnesty International said it confronted the Iranian authorities regarding the allegations but has not yet received a response.

The protests under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom” began following the death of the 22-year-old Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini in September 2022. The young woman died following her arrest by the Iranian moral police because of a headscarf that was allegedly worn too loosely. According to her family, she died following being mistreated by the moral police. The Iranian authorities reject this.