Twenty-four-year-old Kosar Eftekhari is living proof of the violent oppression in Iran.
“The Islamic Republic shot me in the eye and took my sight,” she said.
Eftekhari was a theatre actress in Iran, who took to the streets in October 2022 after the in-custody death of Mahsa Jina Amini.
Eftekhari was protesting in Tehran on Oct. 12 when she said an Islamic Republic security agent targeted her eye with a rubber bullet. More than 580 protesters were blinded in the first six months after the uprisings began according to the news agency Iranwire. She has been blind in one eye ever since.
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She said she remembered the shooter’s smile as he shot her.
Living in Berlin now, she is currently in Geneva, where she testified before the United Nations Commission.
The results of the U.N. fact-finding mission on Iran’s response to the Woman, Life, Freedom movement were presented on March 18 to the U.N. Human Rights Council during its regular session in Geneva.
The council established the fact-finding mission in Iran to document the deteriorating situation of human rights two months after Amini’s death sparked nationwide protests that morphed into a revolution aimed at toppling the regime.
Sara Hossain, chairperson of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, told the U.N. Human Rights Council that the “widespread images of protesters wearing a white protective patch over one or both of their eyes became a hallmark of the 22 protests and this didn’t happen by chance.”
The mission says it found a pattern of security forces targeting their firearms toward vital body parts of protesters and bystanders including their eyes and genitals.
Eftekhari’s eye injury is now evidence, showcasing the brutality and criminality of the Islamic Republic of Iran against its people.
The U.N. fact-finding mission says it uncovered murders, torture, and rape amounting to “crimes against humanity” during Iran’s brutal crackdown on protesters following Amini’s death.
This is the first time such language has been publicized in a report on the regime.
It also revealed that AI technology was being used to monitor protesters on social media.
“We found credible figures of 551 deaths, amongst them at least 49 women and 68 children in 26 out of the 31 provinces in Iran,” said Hossein. Ethnic and religious minorities, she said, were the hardest hit.
In the more than 300-page report, U.N. investigators cited extrajudicial killings, gang rape, enforced disappearances, gender-specific persecution, and systemic imprisonment of what they described as mostly peaceful protests.
Iran has maintained denial of any responsibility for Amini’s death but the mission found that “Mahsa Amini was an unlawful death and we believe the state was responsible,” said Hossein.
Speaking in Farsi to Global News over Zoom in Geneva, Eftekhari said she cried tears of joy upon hearing the mission’s findings.
Canadian-Iranian Nazanin Afshin-Jam stood by Etekhari and several other victims in Geneva. She’s been fighting for freedom and human rights in Iran for more than 20 years.
“It’s a huge step in the process of justice,” said Afshin-Jam.
“It’s taken many years to get to the point of even having a fact-finding mission. In all of its 40 years, these fact-finding missions, Iran has never had one, despite 45 years of repression.
“Not only that, it’s documented now, but we can use these findings to take it to the next step, which would be prosecution.”
Lisandra Novo, a lawyer with the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Litigation Project said this step puts “officials from the Islamic Republic of Iran on notice.”
Novo was part of a team that submitted documentation to the fact-finding mission.
Iran refutes the report’s findings but it could have huge consequences for its officials in Western countries.
“Having found crimes against humanity, including torture, murder, rape, sexual slavery, imprisonment and others is really a key first step in allowing states that have what’s called universal jurisdiction to begin investigating and push forward cases,” said Novo.
She added universal jurisdiction is where a state can investigate and prosecute crimes that happened in another country, committed by people of a different nationality against victims of a different nationality. That means the state can prosecute rather than get caught up in the lengthy deportation process.
Currently, Canada is looking to deport at least nine alleged Islamic Republic senior officials.
“Canada does have universal jurisdiction. They do have the ability to investigate and prosecute crimes against humanity, no matter where they are committed,” said Novo.
Eftekhari said her fight to help the people of her homeland is far from over.
She may be blind but she is not silent.