Child among protesters sexually assaulted in Iran, rights group says

Child among protesters sexually assaulted in Iran, rights group says

DANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD

Mon, January 19, 2026 at 12:21 PM UTC

3 min read

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Illustrative People step on an Iranian flag at a march in support of nationwide protests in Iran, Los Angeles, California, U.S., January 18, 2026. (photo credit: REUTERS/JILL CONNELLY)

HRW and Amnesty warn that Tehran uses rape, sexual violence, and torture to suppress dissent, continuing a pattern of violence following previous protests.

Content warning: This article contains references and descriptions of sexual violence and torture. Reader discretion is advised.

A child is one of two Iranian protesters, formerly held in Kermanshah, who allege they were sexually assaulted during their detention, the France-based NGO Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) shared on Friday.

“During the transfer, security forces touched their bodies with batons. They beat and applied pressure to the anal area with a baton through the clothing,” Rebin Rahmani, from the KHRN, told The Guardian.

Human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, warned following previous protests that Tehran uses rape, sexual violence, and torture as part of a pattern of violence to suppress dissent.

“Iranian security forces’ brutality against detained protesters, including rape and torture, are not only an egregious crimes, but a weapon of injustice wielded against detainees to coerce them into false confessions,” Nahid Naghshbandi, acting Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch, said following the deadly crackdown on the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom protests.

“These methods are also a twisted and despicable means of further stigmatizing and repressing marginalized ethnic minorities.”

Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran on January 9, 2026. The nationwide protests started in Tehran's Grand Bazaar against the failing economic policies in late December, which spread to universities and other cities (credit: MAHSA/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran detains children as crackdown on protests continues

The network independently confirmed the identities of 20 children and adolescents arrested in Ilam,Kermanshah, and Kurdistan provinces, while the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Union has reported the arrest of at least 100 minors in the Kermanshah province.

Releasing the names of 199 people whose fate remains unknown, the network shared that the families of those arrested complained that authorities abducted their loved ones without a judicial warrant and in a violent manner.

Protesters taken from the Ilam province, who were transferred to the detention center of the central prison of Ilam city, have been deprived of legal support and subjected to torture, the group said. The same province saw regime forces storm a local hospital, where they detained injured protesters and stole the bodies of those killed.

The rights group said they were currently investigating multiple reports of protesters murdered in detention.

Soran Feyzizadeh, 40, was tortured to death in captivity, and his family was forced to pay for the return of his body, according to the Hengaw human rights group.

Full-scale of Iran’s human rights violations unknown as internet shutdown prevents investigations

Investigations into the well-being of protesters arrested, as well as the atrocities committed by the Islamic regime, have been largely disrupted by the internet shutdown imposed by Tehran.

The exact number of those murdered remains unknown, though an Iranian official confirmed to Reuters on Sunday that authorities had verified at least 5,000 people had been killed in protests in Iran.

"The final toll is not expected to increase sharply," the official said, while blaming Israel and the United States for the violence.

Much like how Tehran buried unnamed victims in the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery following the 1979 revolution, human rights activists and groups have warned that the masses of bodies may never be fully identified and laid to rest.

In 2024, the United Nations’ special rapporteur noted that Tehran had attempted to destroy the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery to “conceal or erase data that could serve as potential evidence to avoid legal accountability” regarding its actions.

A video obtained by CNN revealed a makeshift morgue at the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Center and families wailing as they attempted to identify lost loved ones among the hundreds of bodies. BBC Verify confirmed that some of the bodies laid out in bags were marked unidentified in footage it deemed too graphic to share.

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