Female protesters are being shot in the face, breasts and genitals by Iranian security forces, report says
- Several doctors treating protesters in secret to avoid arrest said they observed female protesters had different wounds to male patients
- Violent protests have endured in Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini in September – as many as 469 protesters may have been killed by security forces
Iran’s security forces armed with shotguns are firing at the faces, breasts, and genitals of female anti-regime protesters, according to interviews with doctors across the country that appeared in The Guardian.
Several doctors treating protesters in secret to avoid arrest said they observed female protesters had different wounds to male patients.
They said men usually had shotgun pellets on their legs, buttocks, and backs. In contrast, women had close-range shots to more intimate areas, The Guardian’s Deepa Parent and Ghoncheh Habibiazad reported.
One doctor from the Isfahan province in central Iran said men and women were being targeted differently “because they wanted to destroy the beauty of these women”.
The doctor said he treated one woman in her 20s who had been hit by two pellets in her genitals, adding that there were 10 other pellets in her inner thigh.
“Those two pellets were a challenge because they were wedged in between her urethra and vaginal opening,” the doctor said, according to the newspaper. “There was a serious risk of vaginal infection, so I asked her to go to a trusted gynaecologist. She said she was protesting when a group of about 10 security agents circled around and shot her in her genitals and thighs.”