Architects of brutal women's rights crackdown consolidate their power in Iran

Amnesty International has exposed the continued dominance of a "deadly state machinery of repression" in Iran, led by security chiefs who perpetrated crimes against humanity during the 2022 crackdown on nationwide protests. In their 1,000-page report, the rights organization detailed the use of murder, torture, enforced disappearance, imprisonment, and rape to suppress an uprising sparked by the death of Kurdish woman Zhina Mahsa Amini in police custody.

The protest, dubbed the Women, Life, Freedom movement, challenged decades of restrictions on women's freedoms and was fueled by economic hardships and the authoritarian rule of Iran's clerical leadership. This year's anniversary of Amini's death has sparked calls for general strikes in parts of Iran, with victims' relatives memorializing their loved ones on social media, despite the risks involved.

Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International's secretary general, stated that the organization's extensive evidence leaves no doubt that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity in their suppression of the 2022 uprising. The report identified 377 protesters and bystanders killed during the crackdown, including 56 children, with a disproportionate number belonging to Iran's Baloch and Kurdish ethnic minorities.

Amnesty International also named 87 officials responsible for the 2022 crackdown and should be investigated for crimes against humanity, including then-Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi and former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The rights organization called on the UN General Assembly to establish a global criminal justice mechanism to prosecute those most implicated in the 2022 crimes against humanity, warning that the cost of continued impunity has been devastating and urging action before another protest massacre occurs.