According to the human rights organization's report, intelligence agencies of the Islamic Republic have been involved in the "torture" and "sexual assault" of detainees. The report emphasizes that these assaults are part of a broader pattern of serious human rights violations to suppress dissent in the Islamic Republic system.
Based on investigations conducted between September and November 2022, seven out of ten Kurdish, Baloch, and Turk prisoners were subjected to "torture for the purpose of forced confession."
The organization conducted interviews between September 2022 and 2023 with five women, three men, and two children. One Kurdish woman told the human rights organization that in November 2022, "two men from the security forces sexually assaulted her while a female officer held her down and facilitated the assault."
According to the Human Rights Watch report, intelligence agents subjected a Baloch woman, who was a witness to the sexual assault of at least two other women, to beatings, sexual assault, and abuse in a detention center in Sistan and Baluchestan, causing physical and psychological harm to them.
Furthermore, a 24-year-old Kurdish man from West Azerbaijan province confirmed that he was subjected to "severe torture and sexual assault with a baton" in a secret detention center by the forces of the intelligence organization in September 2022. This young protester also stated that he was subjected to "group sexual assault" by security forces in a van.
The report also quotes a student from Sistan and Baluchestan University who stated that in October 2022, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces arrested her along with 20 other women and subjected them to "torture and sexual violence" during a month-long detention.
The student mentioned instances of sexual violence, including "kicking in the genital area," and stated that during approximately 50 days of detention, she was subjected to sexual assault three times.
In addition to these cases, the Human Rights Watch report addresses the sexual assault of a Baloch woman, a 21-year-old Kurdish woman, and the sexual assault by plainclothes officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on a 30-year-old male protester in Tabriz, as well as the sexual assault of a 24-year-old male medical student in Oshnavieh.
