Iranian security forces coordinated the killing, torture and sexual abuse of protesters and bystanders during the women-led nationwide protests in 2022, Amnesty International says, citing leaked state documents and interviews. The rights group has verified the deaths of 377 people, including 56 children, and documented 16 reported rape cases involving people detained in connection with the uprising.
What Amnesty documented
Amnesty said state agents sexually assaulted detainees using methods that included penetration with wooden and metal batons, glass bottles, hosepipes, and the sexual organs and fingers of agents. The reported victims included women, men and children.
Leaked instructions cited by Amnesty called for a “firm and severe” response. One order instructed forces to “respond mercilessly and go as far as causing death”, according to the rights group.
Key points
- The protests followed the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman arrested by morality police over alleged hijab-rule violations.
- Amnesty documented reported rape cases involving six women, seven men, a 14-year-old girl and two boys aged 16 and 17.
- The organisation identified 87 Iranian officials for investigation over alleged crimes against humanity.
The crackdown and its alleged legacy
Tens of thousands of people joined protests in towns and cities across Iran after Mahsa Amini’s death. Amnesty said the investigation found a hierarchical chain of command linking street-level agents to officials who directed, enabled, facilitated and supported abuses. Read the context: What Amnesty found about India’s crackdown on Gen Z protesters.
Amnesty said years of impunity after the 2022 crackdown paved the way for a more brutal response to nationwide anti-government protests in January 2026. The organisation said thousands of protesters were killed over 8 and 9 January, and that later testimonies also described sexual assault and torture.
Officials named by Amnesty
Amnesty identified 87 officials, including the late supreme leader Ali Khamenei and Mohammad Bagheri, the former chief of the general staff of the armed forces who was killed in an airstrike in June 2025. It said they should be investigated for crimes against humanity.
The list also included Ahmad Vahidi, who was interior minister during the 2022 protests and later became general commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Majid Mirahmadi, then deputy interior minister for police and security.
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