Women’s eyes and faces intentionally targeted in Iran

Iran Human Rights (IHR) says analysis of protester deaths and eye injuries reveals that women’s eyes and faces were intentionally targeted during last year’s protests.

In a new report, the Oslo-based non-profit based its argument on statistical data gathered about the protests that began in mid-September 2022 and spread across the country. “Women made up 9% of slain protesters and 28% of those who sustained eye injuries,” the report said.

Security forces in Iran use a shotgun shell known as ‘bird shot’ with small metal pellets that is less likely to kill from a distance but can indiscriminately blind people in a crowd. In November 2022, dozens of ophthalmologists warned against the use of shotgun ‘birdshots’ and other projectiles by Iran’s security forces that they said had blinded over 500 protesters since mid-September.

The number of injured men and women should be proportionate to those who participated in the protests if the shootings were not intentional, IHR director Mahmoud Amiri-Moghadam said.

Intentional aiming at protesters’ faces and tens of cases of serious eye injuries was first reported during a crackdown on water protests in Isfahan in December 2021.