Tehran mosques used to surveil, shoot at January protesters
Medical professionals are reporting a surge in long-term, debilitating injuries among Iranian protesters who were shot with metal pellets during recent crackdowns. Many survivors face chronic pain and potential opioid dependence, with doctors noting that most of the embedded pellets cannot be safely removed.
Why it matters
The report highlights the severe, lasting humanitarian impact of state-sanctioned violence against protesters in Iran.
Much of the attention since Iran’s bloody crackdown has rightly focused on those who were killed. Far less has been paid to those who lived.
They went into the streets hoping this time would be different. For many, it was, but not in the way they had hoped.
They survived being shot with metal pellets, beaten and, in some cases, slashed with machete-like weapons. Now doctors warn that some could spend the rest of their lives with permanent disabilities, chronic pain and dependent on opioids simply to manage it.
“You’re creating a generation of people in chronic pain and potentially creating a generation of opiate dependence,” Dr. Sarah Raza, a trauma and vascular interventional radiologist in Los Angeles , told Iran International’s English-language podcast Eye for Iran.
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