Voice of America Investigative Report | Sexual Assault of at Least 11 Detained Boys and Girls During the 2022 Protests in Mazandaran - Part Three

The Persian section of Voice of America has uncovered evidence over the past few weeks regarding the sexual assault, abuse, and harassment of several male and female detainees during the protests of 2022 in detention centers and prisons of the Islamic Republic in several northern cities of Iran. This is the third and final part of Voice of America's exclusive report about the city of Amol. According to Voice of America's investigations, at least 11 cases of sexual assault, abuse, and harassment have been verified in the cities of Sari, Babol, and Amol. However, it is estimated that the actual number of such incidents in the detention centers and prisons of the Islamic Republic is much higher. This is especially true given that the disclosure of such cases usually brings difficulties for whistleblowers due to security reasons and the sensitivity of the security and intelligence apparatus of the Islamic Republic; as recently occurred with Dina Ghalibaf, a journalist, after she revealed her sexual assault during her detention in April of this year. In this context, the names of these 11 individuals have not been disclosed in the report due to security concerns and the wishes of the individuals and their families. One of the victims of sexual assault in Amol is a young girl who was under 18 at the time of her detention in late October 2022. She said: "We had gone to the streets for a protest with my friends when I was arrested at night. Two others from our group; a girl and a boy, were also arrested. I was taken by car to the IRGC in Amol on Imam Khomeini Boulevard. There, after getting out of the car with another girl, they started beating us. Those who were hitting us were several soldiers and young men in military uniforms. They beat us with cables and batons. One person was there who commanded them not to hit our heads and faces." This young girl was injured from the blows and lost consciousness, and when she came to, she found herself in a solitary confinement cell. Hossein Ali Montazeri had written in a letter to Khomeini: "Do you know that in Mashhad prison, about 25 girls were forced to have their ovaries or wombs removed because of what had happened to them?! Do you know that in some prisons of the Islamic Republic, young girls are forcibly raped?!" He added: "The next day, I was taken blindfolded to a room and forced to kneel on the ground. After several questions and insults and making bad accusations against me and my family, they wanted me to take off my clothes. I started screaming, and one person attacked me violently, tore my clothes off, and began to touch my body and also said sexual remarks." This girl, who was under 18 at the time of her detention, said: "He assaulted me with his hands, and this act was repeated two more times. Once by the same person and once by another person." Sexual assault against political prisoners in the Islamic Republic is not new, and one can refer to the 1980s during the elimination and cleansing of opposition parties and organizations against the Islamic Republic and the leadership of Ruhollah Khomeini. In this context, Hossein Ali Montazeri, when he was the second person in the Islamic Republic and Khomeini's deputy, wrote in a letter to him: "Do you know that in Mashhad prison, about 25 girls were forced to have their ovaries or wombs removed because of what had happened to them?! Do you know that in some prisons of the Islamic Republic, young girls are forcibly raped?!" A young man who was about 20 years old at the time of his detention in November 2022 said: "I was arrested along with two of my friends and then transferred to the IRGC building in Amol. There, we were beaten by several military men." He noted that "there were other detainees besides us who were severely injured on their faces and legs and were bleeding" and added: "I was transferred to a relatively small room where eight others were present." This young man described his interrogation at the IRGC headquarters in Amol: "In my first interrogation session, I was taken blindfolded to a room, threatened, intimidated, and beaten naked, and then one person, with the help of another, assaulted me by pressing down on my body and controlling my arms and upper body." He stated that "I was assaulted again in the same detention center by the IRGC, and this happened to me twice." He added: "After being transferred to prison, I was moved to a ward where most of the inmates were imprisoned for fighting, violence, and conflict. There, for two weeks, I was beaten and sexually threatened daily by several thugs to the point that I was too afraid to go to the prison restroom alone." Another young man, who was over 25 years old at the time of his detention in late September 2022, said: "My identification and arrest were carried out by several thugs. They were in plain clothes, but from their appearance and behavior, as well as the tattoo on one of their wrists, I realized they were not official forces. During my arrest and transfer, I fell to the ground several times due to resistance and struggled with them, and I was severely beaten." He added: "A plainclothes individual along with two military personnel took me from them and immediately transferred me to a location that I later realized was the IRGC headquarters in Amol. There, for a long time, the exact duration of which I do not know, I was beaten with sticks and batons by several military personnel of the IRGC. I was almost unconscious, and my whole body was bruised when they threw me into a small room with three other young boys, one of whom was a student." This young man added that during one of the interrogation sessions, the interrogator asked him why he resisted and struggled with the plainclothes forces during his arrest and claimed that he would "crush and destroy" him in the coming days. He said: "One day or night (I don’t know), I was taken to a room where three or four people stripped me and asked me to roll on the ground and in the floor of the room and to repeat this action continuously." According to this young man, "they attributed vulgar sexual traits to me while rolling and also asked me several times to sit and stand in the same naked position at their command." He said: "They hit my testicles and genitals with a baton or stick (I don’t know) and encouraged each other to assault me, and ultimately, they assaulted me with a foreign object anally. This happened once again in the same IRGC headquarters in Amol before my transfer to prison." According to information received by Voice of America, during the protests against the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police and in the first week of demonstrations, a large number of individuals known as "thugs and bullies" were called to the IRGC and Basij, and after holding orientation classes and arming them with various cold and hot weapons, they were dispatched to the streets to assist in suppressing the protesters. Simultaneously, some received information indicating that many of the forces involved in beating and sexually assaulting detainees in the prisons of Amol, Babol, and Sari were among those who had been recruited to suppress the protesters. Previously, Voice of America had reported exclusively on the role of some thugs, including "Hani Karde," in suppressing the protests. In this report, citing an informed source who wished to remain anonymous, it was stated: "The IRGC and intelligence are fully aware of their actions, but since they assist in various conflicts and issues, they do not interfere with them." This source emphasized that Hani Karde is an "informer" for the Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC and receives "substantial payments" from them, adding that he has been involved in "suppressing protesters and the reason that people in the southeast have never been able to protest is that this person and his forces control that area and do not allow anyone to move. They quickly hand them over to the police." Previously, the security institutions of the Islamic Republic have used "thugs and bullies" to suppress protesters. In this regard, Hossein Hamadani, the then commander of the "Mohammad Rasulullah Corps of Tehran," stated after suppressing the protests of 2009 that five thousand "criminals and thugs" were "identified and controlled" during the protests. Hossein Hamadani, who was killed in Syria in October 2015, added: "On the day they called for protests, these individuals were controlled and were not allowed to leave their homes." He announced that this group became part of three battalions, stating: "These three battalions showed that if we want to train fighters, we must bring such individuals who work with knives and machetes to the forefront."