‘To destroy beauty’: Medics reveal Iranian forces shooting female protesters at faces, breasts, genitals

The agony of women in Iran sees no end. Recent interviews with medics across the country reveal that in an effort to subdue protests, Iranian forces have been shooting protestors, specifically women, to their faces, breasts and genitals.

Doctors and nurses, who are treating demonstrators secretly in the fear of getting arrested, told The Guardian that women protestors have been coming in with different kinds of wounds than what usually men report.

Also read: Iran protests: At least a dozen people currently at ‘risk of execution’

Iranian forces have been using shotguns loaded with birdshot pellets and photographs show that several men and women have been sustaining wounds from these pellets. Some of these photos also show people with dozens of tiny “shot” balls lodged deep in their flesh.

Medical professionals have warned that such injuries can lead to long-term and permanent damage among young Iranians. Injuries to the eyes and the face have been most common among men, women and children alike.

‘They want to destroy beauty of women’

A physician, who wished to remain anonymous, from Isfahan province had an explanation as to why Iranian forces have been targeting men and women differently.

He told The Guardian, “They are hitting men and women differently because they wanted to destroy the beauty of these women.”

“I treated a woman in her early 20s, who was shot in her genitals by two pellets. Ten other pellets were lodged in her inner thigh. These 10 pellets were easily removed, but those two pellets were a challenge, because they were wedged in between her urethra and vaginal opening,” the physician said.

Also read: ‘Nobody has a normal life under the control of the Islamic Republic’

The woman, who has a serious risk of vaginal infection, reportedly told the physician that during a protest that she was attending, a group of about 10 security personnel circled her and shot her in her genitals and inner thighs.

Another doctor from a city near Tehran named Karaj believes that the variation in attacks suggests that security forces shoot at women in the faces and private body parts “because they have an inferiority complex and they want to get rid of their sexual complexes by hurting these young people.”

Gender-based violence not uncommon in Iran

In Iran, this is not a new story. Gender-based violence has been rampant in the country since the 1979 revolution which brought about the rule of Iran’s ayatollahs. Women have been, for long, at the receiving ends of brute force launched by Iranian authorities to maintain order in the country.

The protests against the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini have been one of the boldest challenges to the country’s rule. Following her death, scores of women and young girls have defied the misogynistic rule by rejecting the country’s legally imposed dress codes.

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