Iran's Fight for Freedom: Mass Killings, Mass Resistance, and the Role of Women

One Month into an Uprising Under Total Blackout

Welcome to another episode of the NCRI Women’s Committee Podcasts. As this deep dive begins, the uprising in Iran is nearly one month old. For anyone watching from the outside, there is a shared frustration: something historic is unfolding, yet the picture remains deeply fragmented.

That fragmentation is no accident. Since January 8, the regime has imposed a near-total internet shutdown, making verification and communication from inside the country extraordinarily difficult. Today’s mission is to push past that blackout and piece together what the regime is trying to hide.

Two Forces Collide: Brutality Versus a Nation’s Courage

What emerges from eyewitness reports, medical testimonies, and smuggled evidence is a stark confrontation between two opposing forces. On one side stands the regime’s calculated brutality—actions that go far beyond crowd control and point directly to crimes against humanity. On the other, stands a nation willing to pay any price for freedom.

The Pattern of Killing: The “Head and Heart” Strategy

Medical records and verified videos reveal a chilling pattern. Victims are not being injured to disperse protests—they are being shot to kill. Fatal gunshot wounds to the head, heart, and lungs appear repeatedly.

One verified video shows at least ten women and girls lying on the ground in a single location, all killed by targeted gunfire to vital organs. As one source stated plainly: “These shots were not accidental. They intended to kill.”

This is no longer policing. It is systematic assassination.

Snipers on Rooftops: Orders to Eliminate, Not Disperse

Eyewitnesses confirm snipers positioned on rooftops, firing with precision. No one is shot in the legs. No one is warned. The orders are clear: eliminate, not disperse.

This marks a terrifying escalation and signals a deliberate policy of lethal force against civilians.

Imported Repression: The Fatemiyoun Brigade

The violence intensifies further with the deployment of outside forces. Reports repeatedly name the Fatemiyoun Brigade, a militia of Afghan fighters trained, commanded, and paid by the IRGC.

Used previously in Syria, these mercenaries have no social or emotional ties to the Iranian population. Witnesses say their arrival coincided with a sharp rise in brutality, including the use of military-grade weapons against unarmed civilians.

Iranian cities are being treated like foreign battlefields.

Hospitals as Frontlines: Mass Death in Real Time

The scale of killing is overwhelming medical facilities. At Arash Hospital alone, one source reported receiving 120 bodies in a single hour, two bodies per minute.

Many victims arrive dead on arrival due to targeted gunshot wounds, leaving doctors powerless to save them.

Scorched Earth Tactics: Fire, Fear, and Vanishing People

The regime’s strategy goes beyond killing individuals, it seeks to terrorize the population. In Rasht, security forces reportedly set fire to the historic bazaar on January 8, with people still inside.

In the aftermath, hundreds of abandoned shoes were left behind, silent evidence of panic and disappearance. One witness compared the scene to exhibits at the U.S. Holocaust Museum. 

Transcript

Welcome to another episode of the NCRI Women's Committee Podcasts. It's good to be back. As you're listening to this deep dive, the uprising in Iran is, almost a month old. And I think for anyone watching, there's this incredible frustration, you know something huge is happening, but the picture is just so fragmented.

Fragmented is a good word for it. We're really looking at a near total information blackout. The internet's been shut down since January 8 so getting anything verified out of the country is incredibly difficult. Exactly. And that's really our mission today.

We have a stack of harrowing reports in front of us eyewitness accounts, medical testimonies, things that have been smuggled out. And when you piece them together, you see these two powerful opposing forces. That's really the heart of it. On one hand, you have the sheer calculated brutality of the regime. 

And we're not just talking about pushing crowds back. I mean, we're seeing evidence that points directly to crimes against humanity. And on the other side, the bravery of a nation. People who want freedom at any cost and are willing to pay that price no matter what. So let's try to get past that blackout.

Let's unpack what's in these reports and see what the regime is trying so desperately to hide. I want to start with the violence itself, specifically the pattern. Because when you read the medical files, it's clear. This isn't just crowd control. No.

Absolutely not. Usually, the goal is to disperse a crowd. You use know, tear gas, rubber bullets aimed low, you want people to go home. But the pattern we're seeing here, what some sources are calling the head and heart strategy, tells a very different story. 

There's a verified video that’s just chilling.

It shows at least 10 women and girls all on the ground in one place. Right. And the key detail is where they were shot. These weren't stray pellets. They were fatal gunshots to vital organs.

The head, the heart, the lungs. That implies intent. It screams intent. A source who was close to the event said, and I'm quoting here, These shots were not accidental. They intended to kill.

When you see a cluster of victims all hit in the same way, you're not looking at policing anymore you're looking at assassination. And it's not just forces on the ground; the reports keep mentioning snipers. Yes. This is a terrifying escalation. Eyewitnesses have confirmed snipers positioned on rooftops. This gives them a vantage point to fire with, with total precision. And they're not aiming for legs or arms? No.

One witness noted, no one was shot in the leg. The orders are clearly not to disperse but to eliminate. And there's another element to this. It's how the regime is able to carry out this level of violence. They seem to be bringing in outside forces. You're talking about the Fatemiyoun Brigade?

Exactly. Can you explain who they are? So the Fatemiyoun Brigade is a militia made up primarily of Afghan fighters. But they are created, trained, commanded, and paid for by the IRGC, the Revolutionary Guards. The same ones used in Syria?

The very same. And there's a cold logic to using them in Iran. An Iranian soldier might hesitate to fire on a crowd that looks like his own family. But a mercenary force has no such connection. Not at all.

And the reports are clear. When the Fatemiyoun arrived, the violence went to a whole new level. Witnesses say they used military grade weapons, Uzis, Kalashnikovs against unarmed people. They're treating Iranian cities like a foreign war zone. The impact on the hospital sounds apocalyptic.

I was reading one account from Arash Hospital. The numbers are just staggering. They are. A source inside said they received 120 bodies in just one hour. One hour. That's two bodies a minute. 

Just try to imagine that chaos. And so many are DOA dead on arrival. Because of that head and heart strategy, there's often nothing the doctors can even do. Which leads to the regime's broader It's not just killing individuals.

It seems like they're trying to terrorize everyone with what one source called scorched earth tactics. Scorched earth is exactly right. Take the historic bazaar of Rasht. On the night of January 8, security forces reportedly set it on fire. With people still inside?

Yes, with people trapped or hiding inside, using fire to flush them out. But it's a detail from the aftermath that really stays with you. The shoes. The shoes. Just hundreds of abandoned shoes left behind in the panic.

One source made a very heavy comparison, likening the image to the displays you see at the US Holocaust Museum. That's a powerful comparison. It is, but it speaks to the trauma. It's the visual evidence of people simply vanishing. And speaking of vanishing, let's talk about the numbers.

Because the official story and what we're hearing from the ground are worlds apart. Well that's classic authoritarian playbook. The regime is admitting to around 3,000 deaths. But independent sources, CBS News, medical contacts, they're reporting something much higher. Much, much higher.

In less than a month? I mean, where do the bodies go? And that's where reports of mass graves come in.

Sources are saying security agencies are burying people in secret at night. And if a family does find their loved one, the cruelty continues. The extortion! Demanding huge sums of money (sometimes up to 800,000,000 TOMANS) just to return a body. It's a way to silence the victim even in death. And silence is the whole point.

We mentioned the internet blackout but a government spokesperson basically said not to expect it back until Nowruz 1405. Which is the Iranian New Year. Yeah. March. So they plan to keep the country in the dark for months.

To scrub the crime scene essentially. And there's one more, even more alarming allegation: the potential use of toxic chemical substances. That was cited by Newsweek. Yes, and former UK officials. Reports from Iranian Kurdish sources claim victims are dying days after exposure from complications.

If that's verified, we're talking about weapons of mass destruction used on civilians. So it all sounds like a regime in total brutal control but then you look closer and you see signs of panic? You do. And the first sign is always the money. As one source put it, the rats are now fleeing the ship.

That's in reference to a U. S. Treasury official's statement. Exactly. They are tracking senior officials moving millions, even tens of millions of dollars out of the country.

You don't do that if you're confident you'll be in power next year. 

And their propaganda seems to be failing too. It's being overwhelmed by reality. The regime's own state TV interviewed an official at the Kahrizak morgue and he was completely shell shocked. What did he say?

He talked about body bags on the floor because the coolers were full, families searching for loved ones. He admitted, we were not prepared for something on this scale. That's a huge crack in their narrative. 

Okay. So the regime is brutal but panicking. Let's pivot to the other side of this because despite everything we've just said, the people are still on the streets. This is the bravery part. And what's so striking this time is the leadership role of women. They're at the absolute forefront. They are.

They are the specific targets, as we discussed, but they're also leading the chance, organizing, facing down security forces. And it's not just young students. No. The diversity is incredible. Young mothers, elderly people.

I read one report about a woman pushing her husband in a wheelchair to the protest. That image just destroys the regime's narrative about thugs and the morale. 

There's a quote from a wounded protester. He had six pellets in his body. He said, We'll take 100 pellets if needed, but we will drive the mullahs out.

And it's not just anger, there's real political maturity here. The slogans aren't just about the economy. One of the most common chances, death to the oppressor, be it the shah or the mullahs. Oh, so they're rejecting all forms of dictatorship. Exactly.

They don't want to trade one tyrant for another. They're looking forward to a democratic republic, not backward. And this spirit has spread to at least 207 cities. And we should mention the resistance units. Yes, these are organized networks affiliated with the PMOI/MEK.

They help sustain the momentum. And the regime knows how effective they are. The sources say there have been 50,000 arrests. 50,000? And yet the movement hasn't stopped.

It suggests the regime's main tool fear, it's just not working anymore. So with all this happening, what is the world doing? Is anyone watching? The world is watching and the language is starting to change. Amnesty International is using the term unlawful mass killings.

The UN High Commissioner is calling for investigations. European leaders. Leaders from across Europe are now explicitly recognizing the right of the Iranian people to resist tyranny. Legally, this is hugely significant. So where does this leave the regime under international law?

Based on the evidence. The systematic targeting of civilians. The scale of it. This falls squarely under the definition of crimes against humanity in the Rome Statute. These are crimes that have no statute of limitations.

Which brings us back to today, a month in, a bloodbath. Yeah. And yet, the protests continue. It's an incredible testament to the human spirit. You can shut down the Internet. You can deploy snipers, but you can't kill the desire for freedom once it's fully awakened. 

The people are betting that their endurance will outlast the regime's violence. It's both sobering and incredibly inspiring. And this is where we turn to you who are listening to this. We can't just be passive observers to this.

Absolutely not. The people of Iran need to know the world sees them and supports them. So we invite you to take action in support of the Iranian people's resistance and its brave women. Your voice matters. And if you can, we encourage you to donate to the NCRI Women's Committee to directly contribute to the genuine cause of Iranian women's struggle.

You can find all the information by visiting our website at wncri.org. Thank you for taking the time to listen and for looking behind the curtain of this blackout. Until the next episode, stay informed and stay engaged. Goodbye for now.