Iran International
Two nurses working in a Tehran hospital who treated wounded protesters during the nationwide uprising in January were tortured and repeatedly gang raped by security agents while in custody, people familiar with the matter told Iran International.
The sources, based in Tehran, requested anonymity for fear of retribution.
The nurses were among medical staff at Tehran’s Rajaei Cardiovascular, Medical and Research Center who treated people injured during the massive protests that erupted in late December and spread into early January, drawing millions into the streets and prompting a crackdown that led to mass arrests and at least 36,500 deaths.
Sexual torture and severe injuries
One of the nurses, a 33-year-old woman, was repeatedly abused and raped during detention, according to informed sources who spoke with Iran International.
Sources said agents subjected her to various forms of sexual torture.
In addition to assaulting her with their fingers, agents raped her in groups of two or three over consecutive days.
They also raped her by inserting a foreign object into her anus, causing severe bleeding, the sources said.
In another form of torture, agents took her along with dozens of other detained women to an elevated place and then pushed them all into a small pit-like space, the sources said.
The injuries inflicted on the nurse were so severe that doctors had to remove part of her intestine, and she now lives with a colostomy bag, one source said.
Her uterus also suffered severe tearing and she has so far undergone two surgeries. Doctors may ultimately be forced to remove her uterus completely, the source added.
Before she was transferred to the operating room, the nurse repeatedly asked doctors not to allow her to survive and said that if she came out of surgery alive, she would take her own life, the source said.
According to an eyewitness, her psychological condition is so severe that her hands are currently tied to the hospital bed to prevent her from harming herself while she remains under the supervision of security forces.
The second nurse who was subject to gang rape in custody, according to witnesses.
Part of her intestine was severely damaged, and she has also been fitted with a colostomy bag, the witnesses said.
Due to severe bleeding, doctors removed her uterus completely.
Sources said the family of one of the nurses was forced to pay significant sums of money to an intelligence officer to secure her release.
According to the sources, a document was then prepared stating that the woman had entered into a temporary marriage with one of the agents, a step described as intended to create the conditions for her release.
She was also required to sign a pledge stating that after her release she would declare that she had been abused and raped by “rioters,” the sources said.
Hospital crackdown during protests
The hospital, located in the Vali-Asr area of Tehran, faced a wave of wounded people late on the evening of Jan. 8.
From around 9 p.m. onward, large numbers of individuals injured by live ammunition were transferred to the hospital.
Agents involved in the crackdown on protesters told hospital staff not to provide medical treatment to the wounded, according to sources.
Among the 27 personnel and nurses present in the ward that night, 14 refused the order and attempted to treat the injured.
Sources said two male nurses among them were arrested after protesting the situation and expressing sympathy with the wounded.
Among the 14 members of the medical staff who resisted the order, only seven female nurses were able to continue providing emergency care for several hours.
According to information received by Iran International, these seven nurses continued treating the wounded until around 11 p.m. to midnight.
Security forces later entered the hospital and fired at some of the wounded patients.
When nurses and hospital staff protested the shooting, they were beaten and transferred to the lower floor of the hospital and into a storage area.
Witnesses said that among the seven nurses, two were shot and killed in front of the others.
Staff were warned not to touch the bodies, and the corpses were left where they lay.
According to information received by Iran International, the families of the two nurses found their bodies several days later in Kahrizak.
Five other female nurses were arrested and transferred to detention, and their families had no information about their situation for weeks.
International concern over sexual violence against detainees
Human rights groups have warned that detainees arrested during the protests face a high risk of torture and sexual violence.
Amnesty International said thousands of people detained in connection with the nationwide unrest were at risk of torture and other ill-treatment in custody, including sexual violence.
The United Nations has also expressed concern about Iran’s violent crackdown on the protests and the treatment of detainees, including reports of torture and sexual violence.
Sara Hossain, chair of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran established by the UN Human Rights Council, said the mission had gathered evidence pointing to serious human rights violations committed by Iranian authorities.
“The information we have gathered points to severe human rights violations, including unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, resulting in arbitrary killings, torture, sexual violence, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and forced confessions,” Hossain said in remarks to the Human Rights Council in late January.
Previous reports and investigations by Iran International have also documented allegations of sexual violence against detainees during protest crackdowns in Iran.
Other allegations of sexual violence against detainees have also emerged during the same wave of nationwide protests
Last month, Iran International reported that female protesters detained during the protests on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9 were raped and sexually assaulted while in custody.
Two teenage girls, aged 15 and 17, who were arrested during protests on January 8, were raped by on duty soldiers at a detention facility, local sources told Iran International.
In a separate account, sources detailed the experience of a young woman and another 17-year-old teenager.
According to the sources, the two were held in an informal detention center which they both described as belonging to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
Sources said the victims were raped by individuals at the site during their detention.
According to sources, the severity of the trauma has led some of these victims to attempt suicide.
Another year-long investigation by Iran International found systematic and widespread use of sexual violence by security forces against detained protesters during the 2022 uprising, sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Zhina Amini.
In exclusive interviews conducted for the investigation, six protesters aged between 19 and 43 said they were raped or sexually abused shortly after their detention, including inside police vehicles, at covert locations and in detention centers.
Sexual abuses committed by Iranian security forces were not isolated incidents, but rather part of a widespread, systematic strategy to stifle dissent, as evidenced by numerous testimonies provided to Iran International.
While sexual abuse indiscriminately targeted women of all ages, testimonies also unveiled that authorities employed sexual violence as a calculated tactic to suppress and intimidate male protesters.
The Iranian authorities’ use of physical and sexual violence to suppress dissent is a longstanding tactic, dating back to the establishment of the Islamic Republic.
The mother of Iran women’s national football captain Zahra Ghanbari has been threatened by Iranian security bodies, including the Revolutionary Guards intelligence unit, according to information received by Iran International.
Sources said members of the women’s national team currently in Kuala Lumpur relayed the information to Ghanbari after learning about the pressure on her family.
Ghanbari is the all-time top scorer for Iran’s women’s national team and sought asylum in Australia last week.
The report also said another staff member, Zahra Soltan Moshkeh-Kar had passed on threatening messages from Iran’s football federation leadership to players who had sought asylum, while a third player was reportedly pressured to return after receiving emotional voice messages from family members in Iran.
A growing trend across Persian-language social media has turned timelines into a collective archive of national trauma, with users posting photos and videos of disasters they link to the Islamic Republic’s governance over the past four decades.
The campaign, organized loosely around the hashtag #ThisIsNotAWarPhoto, responds to comments circulating online that the current conflict is destroying Iran and harming ordinary people. Participants counter that the country has already endured decades of devastation under its own rulers.
Posts often show photographs of earlier catastrophes, from building collapses and industrial explosions to environmental destruction and violent crackdowns. Many users have assembled threads or collages showing multiple disasters together.
The result is an informal digital archive documenting events that participants say demonstrate how ordinary Iranians have long faced the consequences of corruption, poor oversight and repression.
Industrial disasters and safety failures
Among the most widely shared images are photos from the explosion at Shahid Rajaei port near Bandar Abbas. The blast killed 57 people and injured more than 1,000, according to Iranian state media.
International coverage later connected the incident to chemicals used in missile fuel production. The Associated Press cited maritime security firm Ambrey as saying the port had recently received ammonium perchlorate from China, a compound commonly used in solid rocket propellant.
Iranian authorities denied that military materials were stored at the commercial port and said the cause of the explosion remained under investigation.
Another image frequently circulating online shows the collapsed Metropol building in Abadan. The ten-story residential and commercial structure fell on May 23, 2022 while under construction, killing at least 41 people and injuring dozens.
The disaster triggered protests in Khuzestan province and elsewhere as residents blamed corruption, construction violations and inadequate oversight.
Photos from the Zemestan-Yurt coal mine explosion in Golestan province in 2017 also appear widely in the campaign. The blast trapped miners deep underground in tunnels filled with methane and carbon monoxide, killing 43 workers and injuring more than 70.
Another post recalls the Plasco building collapse in Tehran in January 2017, when a fire engulfed the commercial tower before it collapsed. Around 20 firefighters were killed and dozens injured in the disaster.
Images of the Neyshabur train explosion in northeastern Iran also circulate online. In February 2004, runaway freight wagons carrying sulfur, gasoline, fertilizer and cotton derailed near the village of Khayyam before a massive explosion killed at least 295 people and injured more than 460.
The blast was so powerful that Iranian seismologists recorded it as a small earthquake.
Environmental destruction and water crises
Environmental decline features prominently in some posts. Users share images showing the dramatic shrinkage of Lake Urmia, once one of the Middle East’s largest salt lakes. Years of dam construction, water diversion and heavy agricultural use across the basin caused the lake to recede drastically, turning vast areas into salt flats.
The drying of the Hawizeh Marshes on the Iran-Iraq border also appears in many threads. Environmental experts say oil exploration and water diversion projects have reduced water flow into the wetlands, damaging ecosystems that supported communities for thousands of years.
Water shortages have also driven protests in cities such as Khorramshahr. Photos from demonstrations in 2018 show residents protesting over the lack of safe drinking water during extreme summer heat. Security forces responded with arrests and gunfire, according to activists and local reports.
Another widely shared disaster is the 2019 Shiraz flash flood, which struck during the Nowruz holiday travel period. Floodwaters swept through a road leading into the city, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 200.
Critics later linked the severity of the disaster to blocked historic flood channels and poor drainage infrastructure.
Repression and political violence
Many posts also recall episodes of state violence. Images referencing the July 1999 student protests show the aftermath of a raid on dormitories at the University of Tehran. Security forces and vigilante groups stormed the dorms after demonstrations against the closure of the reformist newspaper Salam.
At least one student was killed and hundreds were injured. Several detainees disappeared during the crackdown whose fate remains unknown.
Photos from Zahedan’s Bloody Friday in September 2022 are also widely shared. Security forces opened fire on protesters, worshippers and bystanders near the Makki prayer site during demonstrations linked to the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
Human rights groups documented at least 96 deaths in the single-day crackdown.
Some users also shared photos of victims from the Mahsa Amini protests, which erupted across Iran in September 2022 after the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini while in the custody of the country’s morality police.
The demonstrations quickly spread to dozens of cities and university campuses, becoming one of the most widespread anti-government movements in the country in recent decades. Security forces – including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Basij militia and police – used live ammunition, shotguns, tear gas and mass arrests to suppress the protests.
Human rights organizations including Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA) documented more than 500 deaths during the crackdown, including dozens of children, while tens of thousands of people were arrested.
Images of victims from those protests circulate widely in the #ThisIsNotAWarPhoto campaign, where users present them as part of a broader record of violence carried out by the state against its own citizens.
Other posts refer to the nationwide anti-government protests in January 2026, which users say were met with one of the most severe crackdowns in the country’s recent history. According to figures circulated widely on social media and by activist groups, more than 36,500 people were killed during the suppression of demonstrations across Iran.
A post references the Rasht bazaar killings during the January protests. Witnesses described security forces surrounding protesters in the historic marketplace and opening fire before parts of the bazaar caught fire.
Participants in the campaign say the images serve as reminders that many of the country’s deadliest moments have come not from foreign wars, but from confrontations between the state and its own population.
Disasters tied to negligence
Several posts highlight tragedies tied to safety failures. Images of the Shinabad school fire in December 2012 show a classroom where a faulty oil-burning heater exploded in the village of Shinabad in West Azarbaijan province. Two girls died and more than two dozen students suffered severe burns, many of them permanent.
Another widely shared image refers to the 2020 explosion at Tehran’s At’har medical clinic, where a gas blast killed 19 people.
The Sanchi oil tanker disaster in January 2018 also appears frequently in the campaign. The Iranian-owned tanker collided with another vessel off China’s coast and burned for days before sinking, killing all 32 crew members.
Documents later obtained by media outlets suggested Iranian authorities overlooked evidence that some crew members may have survived the initial collision.
Aviation tragedy and public health crisis
One of the most widely circulated images shows the wreckage of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752.
The passenger plane was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps shortly after taking off from Tehran in January 2020, killing all 176 people aboard. Iranian officials initially blamed a technical failure before acknowledging that air defense units had fired the missiles.
Another set of posts references the ban by the slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on importing the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic. Critics argue that the decision slowed vaccination efforts at a time when official figures showed daily deaths reaching around 1,200.
Poverty and social hardship
Some images highlight living conditions rather than single disasters. Photos of homeless people sleeping inside empty graves in Shahriar near Tehran in 2016 became a symbol of poverty and inequality in the country.
Other posts show neighborhoods where residents live in conditions that users compare to war-damaged areas, reinforcing the campaign’s central message that destruction in Iran did not begin with the current conflict.
A collective memory of crisis
Participants say the images circulating online represent only a fraction of the tragedies they associate with over four decades of rule by the Islamic Republic.
By gathering them in a single digital space, users are constructing a visual timeline of events that many Iranians remember but rarely see documented together.
The posts argue that the country’s hardship did not begin with foreign strikes or military escalation.
For many participants in the campaign, the images serve as a reminder that long before the latest war, Iran had already endured decades of crises at home.
Sources said Zahra Meshkinkar, a member of the team’s technical staff, has been relaying messages from Iran's football authorities to players in an effort to convince them to abandon asylum plans and return home.
The effort comes after several members of the Iranian delegation sought protection abroad during the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in Australia.
The team’s equipment manager, known as “Flor,” and player Mohaddeseh Zolfi were among the latest members of the delegation to apply for asylum, following five other players who had already taken similar steps.
The remaining members of the squad later traveled to Malaysia, where they are currently staying while officials consider possible routes for their return to Iran amid the US-Israeli airstrikes.
Semi-official news agency ISNA on Saturday posted an image of players Mona Hamoudi and Zahra Sarbali as well as the coaching staffer Zahra Meshkin-Kar apparently minutes before traveling to Malaysia to join their team members.
"These three, after withdrawing their asylum request in Australia, will join the rest of the national team players tonight," the report said.
Sources previously told Iran International that players have been kept under tight supervision at their hotel in Kuala Lumpur.
Journalists and outside visitors have been barred from entering, and several players have had their mobile phones confiscated. Others were allowed to keep their phones only under the supervision of security personnel linked to the Iranian Football Federation.
Pressure on the players began before the team left Iran and continued during the tournament and afterward. Mohammad Rahman Salari, a member of the football federation’s board, has played a central role in enforcing restrictions and repeatedly collecting and inspecting the phones of players and staff.
Fatemeh Bodaghi, traveling with the delegation as the team’s manager, has also been described by sources as monitoring players’ social media activity and reporting developments to officials in Tehran. Zeinab Hosseinzadeh, the team’s physiotherapist, has also been cited as among those exerting pressure on players.
The crisis surrounding the team began earlier in the tournament when the players refused to sing the Iranian national anthem before their opening match against South Korea. The silent protest occurred shortly after the escalation of conflict involving Iran and the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
State media quickly labeled the act as “wartime treason,” and officials warned the players they could face serious consequences if they refused to return to Iran.
The Iranian judiciary also issued a statement urging the athletes to return to the country “for the sake of their families,” a warning widely interpreted as indirect pressure on the players through their relatives.
Farideh Shojaei, the vice president for women’s affairs at the Iranian Football Federation, is also accompanying the delegation. She previously said officials were exploring possible routes for the team’s return to Iran amid ongoing US-Israeli airstrikes, including the possibility of traveling overland through Turkey after attempts to fly through the United Arab Emirates failed.
The developments have drawn international attention and concern from human rights groups, which warned that the players could face punishment if forced to return to Iran after their protest during the tournament.
