Leaked state documents and interviews have revealed that Iranian security forces coordinated the killing, torture, and sexual abuse of hundreds of protesters during the nationwide demonstrations that began in September 2022. The protests were sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who was detained by the country’s morality police for allegedly violating hijab regulations.
Following Amini’s death, tens of thousands of people, including children, took to the streets across Iran in a women-led uprising. In response, Iranian authorities launched a brutal crackdown. Official statements and documents cited by human rights groups include orders directing security forces to adopt a “firm and severe” approach, instructing them to “respond mercilessly and go as far as causing death.”
Amnesty International has investigated and verified the deaths of at least 377 protesters and bystanders, including 56 children, in connection with the crackdown. The rights group also documented reports of 16 individuals—comprising six women, seven men, a 14-year-old girl, and two boys aged 16 and 17—who were subjected to rape while in arbitrary detention linked to the protests. According to the Amnesty report, state agents committed acts of sexual violence involving vaginal, anal, and oral penetration using various objects and, in some cases, their own bodies.
These findings correspond with testimonies gathered during and after the protests, including medical reports that indicated security forces had targeted female demonstrators by shooting them in the face, breasts, and genitals, causing injuries with potentially permanent consequences. Survivors have recounted experiences of being blindfolded and sexually assaulted during interrogations. Similar accounts of torture and sexual abuse emerged from anti-government protests that took place in January 2026.
Amnesty International’s secretary general, Agnès Callamard, said the investigation exposes a hierarchical and coordinated command structure behind the crackdown. She stated that those on the ground operated within a chain of command linking them to higher officials who directed, enabled, and facilitated widespread crimes.
The report identifies 87 Iranian officials who should be investigated for crimes against humanity. Among them are the late supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the late Mohammad Bagheri, former chief of the general staff of the armed forces who was killed in an airstrike in June 2025, the then minister of interior Ahmad Vahidi—now general commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—and Majid Mirahmadi, the then deputy minister of interior for police and security.
The 2022 crackdown is said to have set the stage for an even more violent suppression of antigovernment protests in January 2026, during which thousands of protesters were reportedly killed over two days in early January. Human rights observers continue to call for accountability for the alleged abuses and killings linked to these events.