URGENT CALL — March Campaign for Women’s Rights In Solidarity with the Women and People of Iran

During the month of March, traditionally dedicated to honoring women’s rights, ACAT Luxembourg issues this urgent appeal.

Since 28 December 2025, disturbing and increasingly credible reports have described a massive campaign of violence against unarmed protesters and civilians across Iran. What began as nationwide demonstrations for dignity and freedom quickly turned into one of the most brutal and unprecedented crackdowns in the country’s modern history.

Investigations by journalists, medical personnel, and human rights organizations indicate that the most intense violence occurred during January 8 - 9, when security forces reportedly opened fire on crowds in numerous cities during a nationwide internet blackout. Hospital records and independent investigations suggest that more than 40,000 protesters were killed in those two days alone, while other reports place the number even higher. Medical testimony and human rights sources estimate that over 350,000 people were injured, overwhelming hospitals and forcing many wounded protesters to seek clandestine treatment for fear of arrest.

Medical neutrality has also been violated. Doctors, nurses, and volunteer medical workers who treated the wounded were detained, interrogated, and threatened with prosecution or execution for assisting injured protesters.

The fate of many victims remains unknown. Witnesses and medical workers report that bodies of those killed during the January crackdown were removed from hospitals and morgues, transported in trucks, buried in mass graves, or disappeared, leaving thousands of families without answers. Hundreds of bodies of female protesters are still missing.

Particularly alarming are recent reports concerning two nurses in Tehran who had treated wounded demonstrators. According to investigative reports cited by international media, the nurses were detained by security agents, tortured, and repeatedly gang-raped in custody because they had provided medical care to injured protesters.

These allegations reflect a broader pattern of torture, sexual violence, enforced disappearances, forced confessions, and threats of execution against detainees. Such acts violate the most fundamental principles of human dignity, medical neutrality, and international human rights law.

This is not a matter of political ideology.This is not a matter of left or right political views.This is a matter of humanity.

We call upon human rights defenders, medical professionals, civil society organizations, journalists, governments, international institutions, and people of conscience everywhere to speak out clearly and without hesitation.

Silence in the face of brutality enables tyranny. Indifference allows barbarism to spread.

We urge the international community to demand, not only for all unarmed protesters but specifically for the women and girls who have been targeted with particular brutality:

• Immediate protection of female protesters and detainees, with guarantees against torture and sexual violence.• Independent international investigations into the reported killings, disappearances, torture, and sexual violence.• Full transparency regarding the fate of detained or missing women and girls.• Immediate release of women detained solely for exercising fundamental rights, including peaceful protest, medical assistance, and freedom of expression.• Protection for doctors, nurses, and medical workers, and an end to the criminalization of humanitarian care.• Accountability under international law for those responsible for torture, rape, extrajudicial killings, and other grave violations.• International monitoring mechanisms to protect detainees, women, and human rights defenders.

The protection of women in times of repression is not a political choice. Iis a moral and legal obligation. Silence and inaction cannot shield those responsible for crimes against humanity.

Let March be more than a symbol.Let it be a moment when the world refuses to look away.

Justice requires voices. Human dignity requires courage. The women of Iran must not stand alone.

ACAT Luxembourg asbl 

Written by: Shabnam Sabzehi 

Date: 16 March 2026