The killing of 24-year-old Elahe Hosseinnejad by a driver from a ride-hailing app has deeply jarred Iranian women who say they live in daily fear on buses, in taxis and on the streets.
Hosseinnejad, a nail technician from Eslamshahr south of Tehran, vanished on her way home late last month, and her body was found days later riddled with stab wounds.
Police later arrested the man driving her, whose account of the murder varied from an altercation over payment to his alleged gendered slur that she had been "shameless", according to Iranian media citing police.
Voice messages and texts sent to Iran International's submissions line point to a deep well of shared trauma and anger in the male-dominated theocracy.
“I was nearly abducted in broad daylight,” one woman said. “I ran into a stranger’s house because I had no other way to escape. And this wasn’t even a remote place—this was a residential street.”
Dozens of accounts tell similar stories. One woman said her Snapp ride-hailing driver changed course three times, laughing when she protested. Another described how a man posing as a Tapsi driver sexually assaulted her on a highway outside Isfahan.
Snapp and Tapsi are Iran’s two leading app-based ride services modeled on Uber.
“These stories have always existed,” another woman said. “What Elahe’s death has done is rip the veil off.”
Hosseinnejad’s body was released under heavy security and buried without a public funeral.
Systemic fear and silence
In the messages submitted to Iran International, women described persistent sexual harassment in taxis, parks, workplaces and schools.
Some said they were assaulted while taking rides, others while walking to university or boarding a bus.
One woman described sitting quietly in a shared car when the driver suddenly pulled over and exposed himself. “I kicked the door open and ran,” she wrote. “But for weeks, he called me from different numbers, threatening to find me.”
“I went to file a complaint, and they asked if I had a witness,” another woman wrote. “I said if I had one, I wouldn’t be in this situation. They told me to drop it if I cared about my reputation.”
Several others shared versions of the same response: authorities demanding impossible evidence, mocking victims or advising them to stay quiet.
“The law is not on our side,” said another woman. “If something happens to you, they treat you like the criminal.”
Ride-hailing platforms in focus
Snapp and Tapsi, Iran’s dominant ride-hailing apps, came under renewed scrutiny following Hosseinnejad’s death.
Many contributors noted that both apps have faced growing criticism for weak driver vetting and limited response to complaints.
“I was 18, and the driver kept making crude comments,” one woman wrote. “When I reported him to Snapp, they told me they’d investigate. Nothing happened. He kept calling me from different phones.”
In several cases, riders said drivers had pressured them to adjust their clothing or implied they could be dropped off mid-trip to avoid fines under Iran’s hijab regulations.
“I wore my scarf just to avoid trouble,” wrote one student. “But the way they looked at me … it was like they were waiting for an opportunity.”
The cost of inequality
Women who contacted Iran International repeatedly returned to one point: gender-based inequality under the law.
“I don’t want revenge,” one woman said of Hosseinnejad’s accused killer. “I want justice. But how can there be justice when our lives are worth half as much under the law?”
Under Iranian law, murder is punishable by death, but when a man kills a woman, the victim’s family must first pay half the standard blood money—set annually by judicial authorities—to the killer’s family before an execution can take place. Activists say this devalues women’s lives and deters families from pursuing justice.
Elahe Hosseinnejad’s story has ignited anger—but also a grim sense of recognition. “She did everything right,” one woman said. “She worked, cared for her family, shared her beliefs—but still, she ended up dead."
That’s what terrifies us most.”
In a statement delivered at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, the EU said Iran’s nuclear trajectory poses serious proliferation risks and accused Tehran of gaining irreversible knowledge through its expanding uranium enrichment program.
“The risk of a nuclear proliferation crisis in the region is increasing as a result of Iran’s escalating nuclear trajectory," the statement read.
“Iran’s unabated nuclear advances over the last five years are of utmost concern,” the EU said. “These actions have no credible civilian justification and carry very significant proliferation-related risks.”
Citing the IAEA’s latest report, the EU said that Iran is now producing more than one Significant Quantity of uranium enriched to 60% each month. A "significant quantity" of highly enriched uranium is defined by the agency as the amount of nuclear material where the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear explosive cannot be excluded.
Iran is currently stockpiling 60-percent enriched uranium, which can be quickly refined to the 90% threshold required for nuclear weapons. Estimates suggest Iran could achieve this level within weeks.
Iranian officials are vocal about weapons, EU warns
The EU further warned that former Iranian officials have made public statements about the country having all capabilities to assemble a nuclear weapon, deepening suspicions about Tehran’s intentions.
"The statements made by former high-level Iranian officials about Iran having all capabilities to assemble a nuclear weapon raise grave concerns about Iran’s intentions,” the EU said without elaborating. “Iran is the only non-nuclear weapon state to produce and accumulate highly enriched uranium in significantly increased amounts.”
In the past few years, Iranian officials have become increasingly explicit about the country’s readiness to produce nuclear weapons and the potential abandonment of its long-standing opposition to them.
Islamic Republic officials say that according to a fatwa (Islamic decree) by the Supreme Leader, the construction of an atomic bomb is not on Tehran's agenda. Experts note such rulings can be reversed.
Kamal Kharrazi, a senior advisor to Ali Khamenei and head of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said on several occasions that Iran “already has the technical capabilities to produce weapons” and would revise its military doctrine if faced with an existential threat.
His remarks in November followed similar statements by former nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi, who said Iran has crossed all technological thresholds needed for a bomb.
Parliamentarian Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani explicitly urged the decision-makers to escalate enrichment and begin weapon production, arguing further sanctions are unlikely to change Iran’s strategic calculus.
Calls for weaponization have also emerged on media affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards amid rising regional tensions.
Iran’s cooperation with IAEA
The EU also condemned Iran’s decision to cease implementation of monitoring measures under the 2015 nuclear deal and to remove IAEA surveillance equipment, actions that it said have irreparably disrupted oversight.
“The agency has lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the production and current inventory of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water and uranium concentrate, which it will not be possible to restore. This has detrimental implications for the agency’s ability to provide assurance of the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program,” the EU said.
While expressing support for a diplomatic solution, the EU urged Iran to reverse course and return to compliance with its nuclear-related commitments.
“We strongly urge Iran to return to the provisional implementation of the Additional Protocol, to ratify it, and to resume implementation of all JCPOA-related verification measures.”
The EU also called on Iran to fully cooperate with the IAEA and expressed support for Director General Rafael Grossi’s efforts to re-establish monitoring access. “Timely and full cooperation with the IAEA remains absolutely crucial,” the EU said.
The statement was endorsed by multiple European countries, including Norway, Ukraine, and North Macedonia.
The EU also requested that the IAEA’s latest report on Iran be made public.
Iran should implement NPT additional protocol, US says
Later in the session, the United States also called on Iran to halt its accelerating nuclear activities, warning that its enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade levels lacks any credible civilian justification and raises serious proliferation concerns.
US chargé d’affaires Howard Solomon said the IAEA's latest report makes clear that Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state enriching uranium to 60%, a level with no valid civilian purpose.
“Iran continues to accelerate its nuclear activities without any credible civilian justification,” Solomon told the Board of Governors. “The Director General’s report is an impartial statement of verifiable facts.”
“Iran now has a clear opportunity to build confidence… by implementing the Additional Protocol, not limiting inspections,” Solomon said.
The Additional Protocol to Iran's Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) safeguards agreement, signed in 2003, granted the UN watchdog broader rights of access and more detailed information on Iran's nuclear activities.
Although Iran never formally ratified it, it implemented the Additional Protocol from 2003 to 2006 before announcing it would no longer do so. In January 2016, Iran resumed provisional implementation of the Protocol in line with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal.
However, in February 2021, Iran suspended its implementation—at the direction of its parliament— nearly three years after Trump pulled out of the accord and adopted its so-called maximum pressure sanctions.
Washington voiced its commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, with Solomon saying that the US is “negotiating in good faith” toward a diplomatic resolution.
“This path forward starts with Iran ceasing its escalatory nuclear activities,” Solomon said.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said the desert zone, now designated a restricted military area, hosts the core of what it called the Kavir Plan—a successor to the earlier Amad project.
The United States accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon as part of the shadowy Amad Project scrapped before 2004, an effort Washington says was overseen by Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND).
“Development, testing and nuclear weapons activities (are) hidden deep in the desert, under intense security measures,” the group’s spokesperson said at a press conference in Washington DC.
The announcement came as Tehran and Washington are negotiating over Iran's nuclear program to reach a deal to curb the program in return for the lifting of sanctions.
Washington has assessed that Iran is not building nuclear weapons and its Supreme Leader has not approved them but recent discourse in Tehran urging the acquisition a bomb is emboldening advocates for such a move.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Iranian negotiators have become “much more aggressive” in recent weeks, confirming nonetheless that the sixth round of talks would take place this week.
Kavir Plan
NCRI’s leading faction, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MeK), said it had obtained new evidence from inside Iran.
MeK spokesperson Alireza Jafarzadeh said the Kavir Plan involves at least six sites in Semnan province—Shahrud, Eyvanaki, Semnan, Sanjarian, Sorkheh Hesar and Parchin site in coordination with the SPND headquarters in Tehran—all directed by the Ministry of Defense and Revolutionary Guards.
“The Kavir Plan is not just a replacement for the Amad Plan, but it’s a more advanced, more sophisticated and more secure plan than the original one,” Jafarzadeh said.
According to NCRI, SPND serves as the coordinating body for Kavir activities. SPND was named in a 2011 IAEA report and sanctioned by the US in 2014 for proliferation efforts.
Jafarzadeh said over 400 nuclear specialists have been transferred from Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization to SPND operations under the Defense Ministry.
Among the sites, Shahrud was identified as a launch complex for Ghiam-100 solid-fuel missiles, allegedly disguised as a satellite facility. Sanjarian focused on explosive bridge wire (EBW) detonators—components critical for weaponizing a bomb, the opposition group added.
Iran has repeatedly denied pursuing nuclear weapons, dismissing MeK reports as fabrications.
"Building nuclear warheads"
The NCRI maintains that the Kavir Plan mirrors the Amad Plan’s goals—specifically, building five nuclear warheads designed for Shahab-3 missiles.
In 2002, the NCRI revealed for the first time a uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy water plant at Arak. In 2003, the group also disclosed the Lavizan-Shian Technological Research Center in northeastern Tehran as an undeclared nuclear site.
The Lavizan-Shian site was cited again in the UN nuclear watchdog’s May 2025 report for noncompliance and the presence of undeclared nuclear material.
Shayan Samiee, a national security expert, said the new report would heighten political pressure.
“I doubt that the intelligence and security apparatus of the US and Europe had no clue about this information. Surely they did,” he told Iran International TV.
“This report will put pressure on the House and Senate to push President Trump to either shut down negotiations with Iran or adopt a tougher stance.”
On Monday, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it had acquired sensitive documents linked to Israel’s nuclear program.
Tehran warned it will use those files to hit Israel’s clandestine nuclear facilities if the Jewish state attacks Iran.