Iran protester: ‘They said if we didn’t keep quiet, they would rape us’

BBC- Sept 27th2022

“They put me on the ground, and an officer put his boot on my back. He kicked me in my stomach, tied my hands, picked me from my arms, and then pushed me into a van.”

This is how 51-year-old Maryam, a protester arrested last week in central Tehran, described the moment Iranian security forces detained her.

Protests have spread across in Iran since the death on 16 September of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by the morality police in the capital three days earlier for allegedly breaking strict hijab (headscarf) rules.

Police maintain that she collapsed at a detention centre after suffering a heart attack, but her family allege that officers beat her head with a baton and banged her head against one of their vehicles.

The protests sparked by her death, led mainly by women, began with demands to end the mandatory hijab laws. But they have now turned into nationwide demonstrations against Iran’s leaders and the entire clerical establishment.

‘Ruthless’ commanders

Despite widespread internet disruption, videos of protesters being arrested by the Iranian security forces have continued to be published on social media.

“It is worse than what you see on these videos,” said Maryam, which is not her real name.

“I heard one of their commanders ordering their soldiers to be ruthless. The female officers are [just] as horrible. One of them slapped me and called me an Israeli spy and a prostitute.”

The BBC has seen videos in which commanders are seen ordering riot police officers to “not pity the protesters and shoot them”.

Other videos verified by the BBC appear to show security forces shooting live ammunition at protesters and arresting those they can catch.

According to the state media, more than 40 people have been killed during the unrest. Human rights groups have reported a higher death toll.

The overall number of people who have been arrested has not been shared by the authorities. However, the chief prosecutor of Mazandaran, a province north of Tehran, said at least 450 protesters had been detained there alone. Human rights groups say thousands of protestors are being detained.

“I pushed a security officer back and tried to run away, but very soon, a second person and a third one arrived,” said Sam, a young protester from a major city. “After a few seconds, more than 15 agents were beating me ruthlessly.”

He added: “I felt the taste of the blood in my mouth and the strikes of an electric stun gun on my body. They put me on the ground, tied my arms behind my back, and tied my feet with my shoelaces.

“One of the soldiers kicked me in my left eye while taking me to [the place] where they kept the other detainees.”

‘Fearless’ young girls

President Ebrahim Raisi has pledged to “deal decisively” with the protests, which have now spread to most of Iran’s 31 provinces.

For many Iranians, Mr Raisi is associated with the mass executions of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s, when he was one of four judges who sat on secret tribunals that condemned them to death.

“They put me and the other detainees on the floor of a bus on top of each other for an hour and a half,” said Sam.

“I was thinking about Raisi’s role in executing political prisoners, and for a moment I thought that they may execute me.”

Mr Raisi has insisted that those executed in the 1980s were convicted in accordance with Iranian law. And while the president is ultimately in charge of the riot police and other law enforcement forces, there is no evidence that he has ordered them to kill people involved in this month’s protestsRead more on the original:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63047372