Iranian forces have killed at least 17 protestors, injured 435 and arrested 570 during the protests rallies held in the past week across the cities of Kurdistan over the killing of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini.

Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah and Ilam provinces, along with other cities and provinces of Iran, were the scene of widespread protests throughout the past week, which initially started in Saqqez, Sanandaj and Tehran.

Due to severe disruptions and outages of the internet in Iran and the military and security atmosphere created in various cities, it is hardly possible to communicate with reliable sources in the field to document the violation of human rights by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Investigations conducted by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) and interviews with more than 100 eyewitnesses indicate that the anti-riot and paramilitary Basij forces killed at least 17 protestors in Orumiyeh, Oshnavieh, Piranshahr, Divandarreh, Saqqez, Dehgolan, Eslamabad-e Gharb and Ilam.

The identities of these civilians are Farjad Darvishi, Mohsen Mohammadi, Fereydoun Mahmoudi, Reza Lotfi, Zakariya Khiyal, Foad Ghadimi, Minou Majidi, Danesh Rahnema, Sadraddin Litani, Milan Haghighati, Amin Marefat, Abdollah Mahmudpour, Mohsen Gheysari, Saeid Mohammadi, Amir Fouladi, Iman Mohammadi and Reza Shahparnia.

These included four minors; Marefat, Mahmudpour, Khiyal and Fouladi were 15-16 years old teenagers.

So far, the bodies of 13 of the killed civilians have been handed over to their families.

The government forces also injured 435 civilians, including 16 children, in Orumiyeh, Oshnavieh, Salmas, Sardasht, Piranshahr, Naqadeh, Bukan, Takab, Saqqez, Divandarreh, Bijar, Qorveh, Baneh, Sanandaj, Marivan, Kamyaran, Dehgolan, Kermanshah, Eslamabad-e Gharb, Ivangharb, Abadanan and Paveh.

Dozens of people injured in these protests have refused to go to medical centres for fear of being arrested by the security forces.

The anti-riot and Basij forces opened fire on protestors from a close range using shotguns and Kalashnikovs, eyewitnesses said.

“Anti-riot forces chased us in the Valiasr neighbourhood of Orumiyeh and shot Farjad with a shotgun from a few meters away and killed him”, said a protestor, describing the moment a protestor named Farjad Darvishi was killed.

Also, in a video taken while the 16-year-old Amin Marafet’s body was washed, it is clear that he was killed by a bullet hitting his chest.

Two sources that spoke on the killing of five protesters named Sadraddin Litani, Danesh Rahnema, Milan Haghigi, Amin Marafet and Abdollah Mahmudpour in Oshnavieh and the Balu village of Orumiyeh said that the civilians were shot at by the local Basij forces near the governorate building in Oshnavieh and the Basij base of the Balu village.

A number of relatives of those killed in Eslamabad-e Gharb told the KRHN that security forces pressured and threatened the families of the murdered protesters not to talk about the killing of their children.

The families have also been asked to pay cash in order to receive the bodies of their children.

Security agencies also told families that they must declare that Kurdish opposition parties abroad killed their children.

The statistics collected by the KHRN also show that during this period security forces arrested at least 570 protesters, among whom there were at least 150 injured civilians.

The detained civilians were taken to the detention centres of the Security Police, the Ministry of Intelligence and the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The families of some of the detainees told KHRN that their children were severely beaten under detention. Their heads, hands and noses were broken and they were denied the right to access medical treatment.

Information on the 17 killed civilians:

  1. Mohsen Mohammadi was from Divandarreh and was wounded by anti-riot forces on 19 September during protests in the city. He died the next day due to the severity of his injuries in Kowsar Hospital in Sanandaj.
  2. Fereydoun Mahmoudi, 33, who was from Saqqez and the father of two children, was shot and killed by anti-riot forces on 19 September during protests in the city.
  3. Reza Lotfi, who was from Dehgolan, was shot and killed by anti-riot forces on 19 September during protests in the city.
  4. Farjad Darvishi, 23, was from the Balu village in Orumiyeh. He was shot and killed by anti-riot forces during a protest rally in the Valiasr neighbourhood of Orumiyeh on 20 September.
  5. Zakariya Khiyal was a 16 years old child from Piranshahr. He was killed by anti-riot forces on the streets of Piranshahr on 20 September.
  6. Minou Majidi, 55, was the mother of three children and came from Kermanshah. She was killed by anti-riot forces in Nobahar Street of this city.
  7. Foad Ghadimi, 39, was from Divandarreh and the father of two children. He was injured on 19 September during the popular protests in the city and died after being hospitalized for two days in Kowsar Hospital in Sanandaj.
  8. Danesh Rahnema, 22, was from the Balu village of Orumiyeh. He was killed by Basij forces on 21 September during the protests held in his village.
  9. Abdollah Mahmudpour, 16, was from the Balu village of Orumiyeh. He was killed by Basij forces on 21 September during the protests held in his village.
  10. Amin Marefat, 16, was from Oshnavieh. He was killed by anti-riot forces on 21 September during protests in this city.
  11. Milan Haghigi, 21, was from Oshnavieh. He was killed by anti-riot forces on 21 September during protests in this city.
  12. Sadraddin Litani, 27, was from Piranshahr. He was killed by anti-riot forces on 21 September during protests in this city.
  13. Mohsen Gheysari, 13, was from Ilam. He was killed by anti-riot forces on the Taleghani Street of Ilam on 21 September.
  14. Amir Fouladi, 15, was from Eslamabad-e Gharb. He was killed by the armed forces near the governorate building of Eslamabad-e Gharb on 21 September.
  15. Saeid Mohammadi, 25, was from Eslamabad-e Gharb. He was killed by the armed forces near the governorate building of Eslamabad-e Gharb on 21 September.
  16. Iman Mohammadi, 22, was from Eslamabad-e Gharb. He was killed by the armed forces near the governorate building of Eslamabad-e Gharb on 21 September.
  17. Reza Shahparnia, 23, was from Kermanshah. He was shot at by anti-riot forces in Kermanshah on 20 September. Dozens of shotgun shots hit his body and a bullet hit his heart. After two days, his body was handed over to his family and was buried in Kermanshah.

The names of those arrested in various cities across Kurdistan:

Sanandaj: Zhina Modarres Gorji (women’s rights activist), Sarya Sharifi (civil rights activist), Faranak Rafiei (civil rights activist), Baran Saedi (civil rights activist), Gashin Mohammadi (women’s rights activist), Mahrou Hedayati (civil rights activist), Azadeh Jamaati ( civil rights activist), Bahar Zangiband (civil rights activist), Rezan Ahmadi (civil rights activist), Rozhan Ghaderi (artist), Soraya Khedri (civil rights activist), Nasser Golparipour (father of the executed Kurdish political prisoner Habibollah Golparipour), Shahriar Oskoui (athlete), Mozaffar Salehnia (labour activist), Amir Gholami (filmmaker), Farhad Sanandaji (filmmaker), Mohammad Abdollahpour, Kaveh Karimi, Shoja Roshan, Lotfollah Ahmadi (labor activist), Reza Sharifeh (Teachers’ union activist), Hossein Saedi (released), Adnan Rahimi (released), Sirvan Amini (released), Jamil Moradi (released), Hiva Rahimi (released), Srwah Shahabi (released), Zana Ahmadi, Diako Ahmadi, Shadi Aslani (social activist), Monireh Mohammadi (social and cultural activist), Parya Mortezaei

Kamyaran: Hadi Kamangar (civil rights activist), Sirvan Moradi (civil rights activist), Omid Nazarian (civil rights activist), Datam Heshadast, Leila Ghaluzi, Mohammad Mehdizadeh, Zanyar Sabouri, Ako Hosseini, Hamid Yousefi, Milad Kamangar, Anvar Ghorbani, Ehsan Fatehi, Mohammad Parvizi (released), Turan Hosseini, Ako Hosseini (Turan Hosseini’s son), Sirous Nadimi

Naqadeh: Masoud (Soran) Abdollahzadeh, Manouchehr Abdollahzadeh, Sohrab Sohrabi, Kiyan Abdollahpour, Hemin Ghassemi, Abdollah Khoshkalam, Ali Hanifi, Samad Hosseini, Hadi Dirmina

Oshnavieh: Ayoub Haghighi, Kamyar Shamati, Ayoub Esmaeilian, Ramin Khosravi, Haji Mohammad Peyghami, Omid Hosseinpour, Jafar Hosseinpour, Seyed Vahab Habibi, Musa Mam-Ali, Siamand Azarian, Shahram Maarouf Mola, Farzad Tahazadeh, Mowloud (last name unknown), Fardin Khosh-Khahash , Mamosta Anvar Rastgar (Imam), Matin Mihankhah (14-year-old child), Rahim Azizi, Keyvan Azarang, Vahab Azarang, Yaqub Mojavar, Shirzad Tahazadeh, Amin Khaleghi (14-year-old child), Kamal Esmaeili.

Bijar: Leila Abbasi (artist and teachers’ union activist), Jafar Valadkhani (teachers’ union activist)

Qorveh: Ahmad Nezamipour (teacher)

Dehgolan: Sirous Abbasi (civil rights activist), Azad Abbasi (civil rights activist), Sirwah Rahmani (civil rights activist), Yadollah Motaei (athlete)

Saqqez: Behnam Rahimi, Rebaz Rezaei, Aria Majidpour, Seyyed Sroush Abbasi Shah-Ebrahimi (Yarsani activist), Rizgar Bahrami

Piranshahr: Ashkan Pirnia (student), Zanyar Nasiri, Saeid Karimi, Fardin Mam-Khezrpour, Aboubakr Barzinji, Shahab Lavjeh, Chia Bazergani, Jalal Sattarzadeh, Ali Heidarzadeh, Sharif Ghaderzadeh, Fardin Kamla, Mohammad (Shahram) Ghaderpour, Mohammad Nozari, Ebrahim Mohammadi, Esmaeil Nabi, Behzad Mostafapour, Ehsan Abdollahzadeh

Bukan: Diako Mehr-Navaei, Kaveh Faghih-Amiri, Masoud Kordpour (Editor-in-Chief of Mukrian News Agency), Mohammad Valizadeh (Student at University of Orumiyeh)

Marivan: Amjad Saedi (released), Rebwar Kamranipour (released), Khabat Veysi, Shahriar Afsari, Avin Rasti (women’s rights activist)

Divandarreh: Smko Mohammadian, Soran Mohammadian, Aboubakr Ghoreishi, Momen Ghoreishi

Mahabad: Saber Abdollahtash, Younes Chokali

Dalahu: Siavash Hayati

Orumiyeh: Amir Abdoli, Mehran Pazeshi, Sisou Omarzadeh, Pano Abdollahzadeh, Omid (last name unknown), Towhid (last name unknown)

Ilam: Mashallah Morshedi, Mohsen Morshedi, Taleb Morshedi, Hamed Vahdati, Miad Morshedi

Baneh: Hadi Kia (cultural activist)

Paveh: Arvin Eghbali, Golareh Moradi, Soren Asaadi (released), Nima Naderi, Karo Hosseini, Anas Valadbeigi, Javad Mowloudi, Kamran Karimi, Peyman Karimi, Loghman Kiyani, Rebwar Fatehi, Hazhar Sharifi, Ehsan Sadeghiani, Milad Gholami, Sina Naderi, Danesh Karimi, Parsa Hosseini, Akar Salimi, Azhvan Sadeghi, Sirvan Ansari, Omran Ahmadi, Peyman Ahmadi , Milad Ansari, Soma Naghshbandi, Vahid Ansari, Mosleh Sharifi, Anis Maghsoudi, Peshawa Rahbari, Shayan Fatehi, Mohammad Fathi, Kamyab Salehi, Mobin Shafiei, Ramin Ahmadi, Kaveh Amini, Mahan Fathi (17-year-old child)

Tehran: Zanyar Mohammadnezhad

Noshahr: Mozhgan Kavousi