Human rights abuses in Iran

The 2025–2026 Iranian protests are a series of nationwide demonstrations against the government of Iran that began on 28 December 2025 amid a deepening economic crisis. The unrest followed a sharp depreciation of the Iranian rial, rising inflation, and widespread shortages linked to international sanctions and government mismanagement. This event has been the largest uprising in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, spreading to more than 200 cities across the country. The ensuing crackdown, reportedly carried out under orders by Ali Khamenei and senior officials to use live fire on protesters, resulted in massacres that left thousands of protesters dead, making them the largest massacres in modern Iranian history.

Since the beginning of the 2025–26 Iranian protests, the Iranian government has perpetrated widespread massacres of civilians, deploying both its own security forces and importing foreign militias to suppress public dissent nationwide. As of 25 January 2026, the total death toll estimates ranged from 6,488 people to upwards of ~36,500 people, including 209 government-affiliated military and non-military personnel, making these among the largest massacres in the modern history of Iran.

Islamic religious police in Iran

Iranian intelligence agency

state-sponsored mass executions of political prisoners in Iran

Iranian activist and journalist (1978-2020)

Iranian citizen sentenced to stoning

Iranian protesters in hijab status

overview of the use of capital punishment in Iran

Iranian Jewish businessman (1909–1979)

overview of hostility and/or discrimination against adherents of the Baháʼí Faith

Iranian Journalist

Iranian victim of acid attack

1988–98 murders and disappearances of Iranian dissidents

prison museum in Tehran, Iran

protester who execution during 2022 protests in Iran

Iranian theologian

death sentence issued by the government of Iran

aspect in a geographic region

Member of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran (1990–2010)

Iranian activist against mandatory hijab

islamic culture in Iran

Member of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran

history of slavery in Iran

prison in Tehran, Iran

prison in Qarchak County, Iran

Iranian juvenile offender

Hengaw () or Hengaw Organization for Human Rights (, , ) is a human rights NGO registered in Norway. It focuses on reporting and documenting human rights violations in Iran, especially against its Kurdish minority.

seven Bahá'í community leaders arrested in 2008 and serving prison sentences in Iran

Iranian prisoner

overview of terrorism in Iran

prison in Karaj, Iran