Some Iranian Officials 'May Oppose Crackdown," Says Think-Tank
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based defense and security think tank, says the fact that some Iranian officials have continued to leak "damning information" about Tehran's brutal suppression of the recent anti-government protests "indicates that some regime personnel may oppose the regime’s crackdown."
The ISW also said in its January 25 update on the situation in Iran that the government has still not reestablished international Internet access in the country and that there "continues to be an internal debate within the regime about restoring it."
"The debate primarily seems to be between regime factions that assess that restoring the internet could cause a resumption of protests and factions that assess that the economic toll of the internet shutdown could cause internal unrest," the institute said.
Reza Pahlavi Thanks Iranian Health-Care Workers
The son of Iran's last shah, former crown prince Reza Pahlavi, who lives abroad, has posted a message on X for health-care workers in Iran, expressing "heartfelt gratitude" to them for playing a "vital role" in treating those wounded in the protest crackdown "beyond the reach and sight of the regime’s unclean hands."
His post on January 25 came on the same day that the Iran Human Rights group said that Iranian security forces have unleashed a new wave of repression by "violently arresting" doctors and volunteers who were helping injured protesters.
Good morning. The US-based rights organization HRANA, whose figures RFE/RL has been regularly citing since the violent crackdown began in Iran, says its confirmed death toll as of Day 29 of the protests is now 5,848 and the number of fatalities still under investigation is 17,091.
We are now closing the live blog for today. We'll be back again tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. Central European time to follow the latest developments in Iran.
Iranian Doctors Targeted By Security Forces, Human Rights Group Says
The Iran Human Rights group says that Iranian security forces have unleashed a new wave of repression by "violently arresting" doctors and volunteers who were helping injured protesters.
"Security forces are violently arresting doctors and volunteer citizens by raiding homes and clinics, and destroying their property," the Norway-based organization reported on January 25.
Citing unnamed sources inside Iran, the report stated that at least four doctors have been arrested for treating those injured in a brutal crackdown on protesters, adding that their fate remains unknown.
A volunteer paramedic, Khosrow Minaei, who had turned his private home into a shelter for the injured, is believed to be among those arrested after security forces raided his home on January 14. According to the report, Minaei had sheltered and treated more than 20 injured people there, and two of the wounded died at his home due to the severity of their injuries.
Daughter of Iranian Security Chief Loses Post At US University
The profile page of the daughter of Iranian security chief, Ali Larijani, has been removed from the website of Emory University in the US state of Georgia.
On January 24, an image of a letter from the dean of Emory University’s medical school circulated on X stating that Fatemeh Ardeshir Larijani is “no longer an employee of Emory.”
Reports of the end of her employment -- and, according to some accounts, her dismissal -- followed weeks of calls by Iranian activists and US politicians for her removal because of her family ties to the Iranian government. Among them was Earl Buddy Carter, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives from Georgia, who wrote to Emory University urging her dismissal.
The United States on January 14 sanctioned Ali Larijani, accusing him, in his role as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, of coordinating the repression of protests and ordering the use of force against demonstrators.
UN Voices ‘Deep Concern’ Over Reports of Sexual Violence in Iran’s Protest Crackdown
Pramila Patten, the UN’s special representative on sexual violence, has expressed “deep concern” about "disturbing" reports of sexual abuse in the context of political unrest in Iran.
"Such acts, whether committed in detention facilities, during arrest, or in the context of the intimidation of protesters, constitute grave violations of fundamental human rights and may amount to crimes under international law," she said.
Because of the Internet shutdown in Iran, reports of possible sexual violence related to the protests are impossible to verify. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has reported that a number of detained persons were subjected to sexual abuse in Kermanshah.
Amnesty International reported in 2023 that "security forces in Iran used rape and other forms of sexual violence...to intimidate and punish peaceful protesters" during the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising.
The recent violence has drawn criticism from a senior Sunni cleric inside Iran.
Molavi Abdolhamid Esmailzehi, the Friday prayer leader in Zahedan, called the killings a “systematic massacre” in a post on X.
“This tragedy has created a deep and irreparable rift between the people of Iran and the ruling establishment,” he said.
Iran is a Shi'a-majority country, with about 90 percent of the population belonging to that branch of Islam. The Sunni Islam minority is about 5-10 percent, according to recent statistics.
Sudden Surge In Eye Injuries On January 9, Says Hospital Director
A report by the head of Tehran’s Farabi Hospital describes a massive influx of patients with eye injuries on January 9.
On January 25, the semi-official ISNA news agency published an account by Qasem Fakhrayi, the head of Iran’s largest ophthalmology facility.
According to him, in the days leading up to January 9 about 55 patients with eye injuries caused by pellet impacts from other cities had been referred to the hospital.
However, on January 9 -- coinciding with a second day of mass protests after former crown prince Reza Pahlavi had urged people to take to the streets -- the number suddenly surged to around 1,000 patients, to the extent that nearly 200 of the injured were transferred to other hospitals.
Maryam Sabbaghi, the head nurse at Farabi Hospital, said that due to the overwhelming number of eye-injury cases, not only were all beds occupied, but the hospital was forced to borrow stretchers from another medical facility and place patients in hallways.
These official figures were released despite the Islamic republic’s longstanding practice of withholding precise statistics related to protests.
The practice of firing pellet rounds at protesters’ faces and eyes began in 2022, during the height of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests, and has left dozens of young protesters blinded.
While Iranian authorities have put the official death toll from the protests at just over 3,000, human rights sources say the true number is far higher.
On January 25, Time magazine, citing two senior officials at Iran’s Health Ministry, said that the death toll could exceed 30,000, with the majority of deaths occurring on January 8–9, when the government’s crackdown on nationwide protests reached its peak.
Tehran Allows Businessmen To Access Internet ‘For 20 Minutes A Day’
The head of the Iran–China Chamber of Commerce, says Tehran has been permitting businessmen to use the Internet under official oversight for short periods each day.
“Holders of commercial cards are allowed to use the Internet for up to 20 minutes a day under the supervision of a monitor,” said Majidreza Hariri, who added that it “in no way meets the needs of traders.”
The Islamic republic has imposed a nationwide Internet shutdown in Iran, preventing news from being transmitted outside the country and blocking protesters’ ability to communicate -- a measure that is now in its third week and seems likely to continue.
Hariri said the limited Internet access for merchants was “certainly not acceptable” for conducting business, and was “only enough to check a few emails.”
The digital blackout, which is causing millions of dollars in daily losses to business owners and to the country’s economy, continues even though the latest wave of protests initially began over economic grievances, with merchants among the first groups to join the demonstrations.
While the government initially portrayed itself as sympathetic to traders and people in need, its policies in recent weeks have not only restricted people’s ability to earn income but have also led to rising prices of essential goods.
Ali Hakim-Javadi, the head of Iran’s Computer Trade Organization, said on January 25 that the “direct impact of the Internet shutdown” was between 20 and 30 trillion rials per day, or roughly $18-28 million at the current free-market rate.