The human rights situation in Iran, especially the persistent violations of women’s rights, demands urgent action. The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) highlights the alarming use of harsh sentences, corporal punishment, and torture to punish women for basic rights activities.

Protests that began on 28 December 2025 about the economic crisis in Iran have led to harsh crackdowns, including mass arrests and killing of protesters, with human rights groups reporting around 4000 deaths, with some unconfirmed figures of deaths as high as 12,000 for protesters and security forces. Figures are hard to verify due to the Internet blackout and poor communications access to and from the country. The authorities have also responded with threats to execute protesters, which should not be taken lightly.

Iran stands out as a leading executioner of women worldwide as Iran has executed record numbers of women in the past two years. These abuses persist in the context of nationwide protests and a forceful state response, with credible reports indicating thousands of deaths and mass arrests, “The killing of peaceful demonstrators must stop,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. Immediate and coordinated international measures are necessary to address these violations and ensure accountability for Iranian authorities.

Among those in detention is woman human rights defender and lawyer Shima Goosheh, arrested at her home on 16 January 2026. Front Line Defenders also reports that on 06 January 2026, human rights defenders Nazanin Salari among others who were charged before Branch I of the Shiraz Revolutionary Court “collaborating with hostile states,” “gathering and collusion against national security,” and other charges. Mahmoud Taravat-Ruy, a lawyer, publicly declared that he would defend protesters who had been arrested.

Within this pattern of repression, GCHR strongly condemned the violent and arbitrary re-arrest of woman human rights defender Narges Mohammadi, the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. According to eyewitnesses, plainclothes security forces detained her on 12 December 2025 in Mashhad. She was reportedly being held in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer and has not been able to call her family since 14 December 2025 when she reported that she had been beaten on the head and neck.

Mohammadi was arrested while at the seventh-day memorial ceremony for Khosrow Alikordi, a human rights lawyer. This arrest happened only one year after she was last released from prison. Witnesses said security forces used excessive force, violently breaking up the attendees and assaulting several activists at the ceremony.

During the same incident, photojournalist Alieh Motalebzadeh, journalist and activist Sepideh Gholian, women human rights defenders Hasti Amiri and Pooran Nazemi were among other human rights defenders and journalists arrested. While Motalebzadeh, who has cancer, was released on bail following the deterioration of her health on 12 January 2026, according to the Narges Foundation, the others remain in prison in solitary confinement, and their legal status is not known at the time of writing. This raises serious concerns about enforced disappearance and ill-treatment.

A Pattern of Targeting Women Human Rights Defenders

Narges Mohammadi has endured over a decade in prison for her peaceful human rights advocacy. Her re-arrest demonstrates Iran’s commitment to silencing women human rights defenders and sustaining systematic oppression.

GCHR has documented that Iranian authorities use vague and broad laws to target WHRDs. These include laws related to:

1. alleged offences against religious sanctity,
2. accusations of collaboration with foreign powers or espionage, and
3. broadly defined “national security” charges, including “propaganda against the state.”

These laws are used to criminalise legitimate human rights activities and silence dissent. This clearly violates Iran’s international legal obligations.

Health Risks, Torture, and the Broader Climate of Repression

Despite repeated warnings from human rights organisations, detained women defenders still face high risks. These include torture, denial of medical care, and other ill-treatment, especially in tough detention conditions. The risk is especially high for those with health conditions, since access to medical treatment is often denied.

Activist Fatemeh Sepehri, who is serving a lengthy prison sentence in poor conditions in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad, has been subjected to harsh punishment for calling for accountability and reform. Her health has deteriorated, including due to an untreated heart condition. She has been arrested repeatedly since 2019, including on 21 September 2022 after protests broke out in the wake of Mahsa Amini’s death. She is serving 10 years in prison for combined cases, according to the law and was also sentenced to 154 lashes. Among other cases, she was sentenced in June 2024 to 18 years and six months in prison, on charges including “insulting the Supreme Leader,” “propaganda against the state,” and “collaboration with hostile states,” similar to charges being made during the current protests that began in December 2025.

Earlier this month, Ghazal Abdollahi, daughter of Alieh Motalebzadeh, reported in a video received by the Narges Foundation that her mother did not sound well during a brief call from an unknown security detention centre on 06 January 2026. Fortunately, as mentioned above, she was released on bail due to her illness, but others are not so lucky. Pooran Nazemi, arrested at the same time with Motalebzadeh and Mohammadi on 12 December 2025, is reported to be in ill health in prison.

The detention of Mohammadi and other human rights defenders exemplifies Iran’s broader crackdown on civil society, with authorities targeting those, especially women, who oppose discriminatory laws. As unrest grows, repression intensifies through mass arrests, violence, and silencing dissent.

International Silence and Complicity

Instead of accountability for its record on women’s rights, Iran benefits from global inaction. Ongoing engagement without strong human rights demands legitimises Iran’s discriminatory system and undermines defenders.

GCHR has said before that a state using legislation, courts, and security to deny women their rights cannot lead or participate in international human rights work.

The ongoing internet and communications blackout imposed since 08 January 2026 during the latest wave of unrest is further aggravating the situation, severely obstructing the documentation of human rights violations, restricting access to reliable information, and heightening concerns for the safety, protection, and visibility of human rights defenders, including women human rights defenders , who are increasingly targeted in isolation and without oversight.

The European Union and Nobel Peace Centre have condemned the arrest of human rights defenders, including Mohammadi. They called for her immediate release. GCHR reiterates statements must be followed by real and lasting action to protect those at risk.

GCHR joined FEMENA and other human rights organisations in a joint protest calling on Iranian authorities to end the violence against protesters, release protesters from prison, and restore Internet access.

GCHR considers the arrest of human rights demonstrators and peaceful protesters to constitute a clear violation of Iran’s international human rights obligations, including the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, as enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Recommendation

GCHR calls on the Iranian authorities to:

1. Immediately and unconditionally release human rights demonstrators and peaceful protesters arrested in violation of their rights to peaceful assembly;
2. End the use of lethal force against protests;
3. End the ongoing harassment, intimidation, and arbitrary detention of human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, and civil society actors;
4. Guarantee the safety, physical integrity, and access to medical care of all detainees; and
5. Drop all charges stemming from peaceful human rights activities and bring domestic legislation into line with Iran’s international human rights obligations.

GCHR also calls on the international community, including United Nations mechanisms, diplomatic missions, and states with bilateral relations with Iran, to take decisive steps to protect WHRDs and:

1. Closely monitor the situation of detained protesters and human rights defenders, particularly women;
2. Exert sustained diplomatic pressure to secure their release; and
3. Refrain from legitimising Iranian authorities through appointments to international human rights bodies while grave violations persist.

GCHR urges everyone to recognise and act against Iran’s systematic targeting of women. Support and stand with Iranian women human rights defenders as they resist oppression at great personal cost.