Iranian protesters blinded by security forces launch legal fight against authorities
Hundreds of Iranians, who have lost their eyes during the anti-establishment protests, use their injuries as a new weapon to continue the fight.
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Activists hold signs highlighting alleged ill-treatment of female students in Iran during a protest in Trafalgar Square held on International Women's Day on 8 March 2023 in London, United Kingdom. [Getty]
At least four persons blinded by metal pellets and rubber bullets filed official complaints against the security forces, the Etemad daily quoted the protestors' lawyer Payam Dorafshan as saying.
The four individuals who set out to challenge the authorities through legal ways were identified as Majid Khadem, Mir Hesam Maleki, Reza Ezzati and Pouria Alipour.
Dorafshan, their lawyer, had previously defended several political prisoners, and in 2021 he was arrested and tortured by the intelligence officers.
According to Dorafshan, his four clients did not participate in protests that broke out in Iran after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the Islamic morality police custody. The security forces targeted the four individuals in the streets near the protest centres.
Earlier in November, a group of 140 ophthalmologists warned the authorities about the rising number of protestors who lost their eyes due to shooting pellet bullets at the head of protestors by the security forces.
In a report on 3 February, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organisation stressed that targeting protestors in the eyes was a systemic attack on demonstrators.
The rights group also published the name of 22 protestors who had lost their eyes, adding that the number of blinded people was over 500. Still, due to fear of reprisal, many declined to announce the reason for their blindness publicly.
Meanwhile, another group of protestors openly talked on social media about their wound and suffering.
One of those protestors was Amir Velayati, who posted his photos on Instagram and insisted on his demands.
"Never mind the eye you owe me; there will come the day that you must pay back your debts," he wrote in one of his recent posts.
Ghazal Ranjkesh, a 21-year-old law student from Bandar Abbas in southern Iran, was another protestor who didn't remain silent after losing her right eye.
"When, with a smile on your face, you shot me from a two-meter distance, could you imagine that I would stay alive and respond to your smile?" Ranjkesh wrote on Twitter.
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