The Pattern of Systematic Dehumanization in Iran
Introduction
What has occurred in Iran today cannot be explained merely by the number of those killed or by a list of violations. Field evidence, reports by international institutions, and the findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission of the United Nations on Iran indicate that state violence has entered a distinct phase; a phase in which the deliberate deprivation of life and the intentional taking of lives, alongside the initiation of a widespread and systematic attack against civilians, and the deliberate destruction of living and dead bodies, have become one of the central tools of exercising power. The March 2024 report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission, together with the positions of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, reveals recurring patterns of violence, particularly gender-based violence and structural impunity.
Within this framework, the body—especially sexual and reproductive organs—has become the primary site of the exercise of power: in the streets through the targeting of body parts; in detention through torture, rape, and threats thereof; through the denial of medical treatment to the wounded; after death through the desecration and mutilation of corpses; and at the narrative level through strategies aimed at engineering fear and psychological collapse. This article is an attempt to document and analyze this unified pattern in light of international human rights law and international criminal law.
The Street: Targeting of Body Parts and Disablement
Based on testimonies, medical documentation, and credible reports—including the European Union country focus report on Iran and the reports of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran—during the recent waves of protests, a recurring pattern of targeting of body parts has been observed: shooting at the eye, head, thigh, pelvis, torso, and in some cases sexual organs. This pattern cannot be explained by shooting errors or emotional reactions.
The wounded body, not necessarily the killed body, becomes a tool for the lasting transmission of a message of fear and disablement; a person who remains alive but carries the marks of power on their body in a lasting manner. From the perspective of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the deliberate and unnecessary use of lethal force against unarmed protesters and the infliction of severe and foreseeable injuries constitute violations of the right to life, liberty, and security of person, and amount to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
An analysis that has also been emphasized in the thematic reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on torture.
Management of Death: Finishing Shots and Denial of Treatment
The pattern is not limited to the initial shooting. Reports by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran and the findings of the Independent Fact-Finding Mission indicate finishing shots to half-alive bodies, the deliberate prevention of blood transfusion, and the prevention of access to essential medical treatment. These findings are consistent with field accounts of the conscious prevention of transferring the wounded to medical centers. They indicate the deliberate denial of access to vital care and the lethal use of force.
Within this logic, death is not merely an unintended consequence of disorder, but the result of conscious decision-making about life and death. The deliberate prevention of vital treatment and leaving a person in a foreseeably fatal condition, including even forcing physicians to refrain from treatment and firing finishing shots at the wounded, constitute—according to the interpretations of UN treaty bodies—clear violations of the state’s obligation to protect life and health, and amount to arbitrary or extrajudicial killing and other grave human rights violations.
Arbitrary and Illegal Detentions: Rape, Threats, and Psychological Collapse
The findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission of the United Nations, chaired by Sara Hossain, together with reports of the Special Rapporteur on torture, show that sexual violence in detention is not a random phenomenon or limited to individual cases, but follows a clear pattern of repetition and organization, and has been repeatedly documented in previous protest movements as well. Threats of rape for the purpose of extracting confessions, sexual assault and rape against women, men, and adolescents, forced nudity and organized sexual humiliation, the application of electric shocks to sexual organs, and systematic intimidation have been recorded in official UN reports as tools of political and social silencing.
These acts cannot be attributed to the individual errors of officers; rather, they must be analyzed within the framework of a pattern of exercising sovereign power, a pattern in which the detained body becomes the object of absolute domination, and violence assumes a function beyond individual punishment and becomes a tool for sending a message to society as a whole.
The Dead Body: Continuation of Control After Death
Based on family testimonies and documentation by human rights organizations, the pattern of destruction of the body does not end with the cessation of life. The mutilation of corpses, including the cutting of sexual organs and internal female organs, the withholding of bodies, conditional delivery, forced burial, and restrictions accompanied by control and the prevention of mourning, demonstrate that control over the body continues after death.
At this level, violence is directed not only at the victim, but also at the survivors; through humiliation, trampling human dignity and the destruction of families’ self-worth, and preventing death from becoming mourning, narrative, or a symbol of resistance.
Conclusion
What has been documented and analyzed in this article is not a collection of scattered events, but a coherent strategy of systematic repression based on the destruction of the body, operating within a defined pattern of exercising sovereign power. In this pattern, the citizen’s body—from the street to detention and even after death—becomes the primary field of exercising power and engineering fear.
The deliberate targeting of body parts, including sexual and reproductive organs, the cutting of sexual organs, finishing shots to half-alive bodies, the deliberate prevention of blood transfusion and of medical treatment, detention accompanied by rape, threats of rape, and organized intimidation aimed at psychological collapse, form a set of interconnected acts that target not only direct victims but also survivors and families through humiliation and the trampling of dignity and self-worth.
This criminal pattern, in light of international human rights law and international criminal law, contains potential elements of crimes against humanity, particularly when accompanied by structural impunity, the absence of independent investigations, and official denial or justification. The focus on the body in this analysis is to expose a logic that, rather than merely eliminating opposition, seeks—through the destruction of the body, psyche, and human dignity—to restrict mourning, reintegration into social life, narration, resistance, and symbolic meaning-making.
In the face of such a pattern, silence and the normalization of violence are not neutrality, but part of the mechanism of its continuation. Precise documentation, legal naming, and the pursuit of accountability pathways are essential conditions for preventing the institutionalization of this pattern and constitute the groundwork for justice.
Sara Ghoreishi
Attorney at Law
Human Rights Researcher
Master of Public Law
References
- Independent International Fact Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran, Report, March 2024.
- Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Iran: Institutional discrimination against women and girls, March 2024.
- Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, A/78/326.
- European Union Agency for Asylum, Iran: Country Focus Report, June 2024.
- Amnesty International, Iran: Human Rights Situation.
- International Commission of Jurists, Iran: Mass killings, impunity and accountability.
- Berkeley Human Rights Center, Gender Persecution in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
- UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Thematic Reports on torture and sexual violence.
- ReliefWeb, UN reports on the human rights situation in Iran.
- UN Security Council Resolution 2467 (2019).
- Security Council Report, Iran Monthly Forecast, June 2024.
- Accountability Pathways, Human Rights Activists / PDP.
