CIVICUS discusses Iran’s recent wave of protests and their repression with members of Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights (HOHR), a civil society organisation that documents and reports on human rights violations in Kurdistan and across Iran.
Economic hardship triggered mass protests in late December, with protesters’ demands rapidly expanding to encompass calls for political accountability, an end to repression and the fall of the regime in power since 1979. Authorities have deployed live ammunition, military-grade weapons and mass arrests, committing what human rights groups have described as crimes against humanity. Death toll estimates vary widely due to a near-total internet shutdown imposed at the height of the protests, with some estimates suggesting that over 30,000 people have been killed.
