A new investigation has revealed how Iranian security forces relied on global supply chains and intermediary companies to obtain weapons later turned on protesters during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising.
The joint report by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and independent news outlet IranWire describes how Turkish, European and North American firms, often through shadowy networks and front companies, supplied or enabled the transfer of shotguns, ammunition and paintball guns used to quell street unrest.
“Shooting protesters in the eyes is a deliberate form of torture meant to instill fear. Hundreds of cases involving teenagers and adults reveal a state-sanctioned pattern, with weapons supplied and repurposed through state-linked channels," it said.
"Targeting eyes and faces reflects a calculated effort to incapacitate protesters and create cautionary examples. These acts violate ICCPR Article 7, constitute crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute and breach domestic firearms laws."
The report argues that while the Iranian government has long imported arms despite sanctions, the 2022 protests marked a shift.
Security forces deliberately deployed so-called less-lethal weapons not as a means of crowd control but as tools of intimidation and punishment. Shotguns, pellet rounds, paintball guns and tear gas canisters were routinely fired at eyes, leaving many protesters permanently blinded or disfigured.
Doctors in Tehran and Kurdistan reported hundreds of eye injuries, suggesting the practice was widespread and state sanctioned.
Investigators documented 134 victims across 24 provinces, with an average age of 29. At least 114 were struck by pellets, nine by paintball rounds, and nine by direct hits from tear gas canisters.
The report said that these numbers represent only a fraction of the total, with many victims avoiding hospitals for fear of arrest.
'Complicity'
The companies named include Turkish shotgun makers Hatsan, Akkar and Sarsilmaz, whose Escort, Karatay and SAR-branded models were traced inside Iran.
European firm Cheddite was linked to ammunition identified by headstamps recovered from protest scenes. Paintball markers produced by Tippmann in the United States and DYE Precision in Canada were also diverted into the hands of police and Basij forces.
These products reached Iran through Turkish intermediaries such as Yavascalar YAF, as well as front companies tied to the FARAJA Cooperative Foundation and the Defense Industries Organization.
Some procurement was disguised under the cover of sports, with the Iran Paintball Association and other federations providing channels to skirt restrictions.
The report warns that such transfers may constitute corporate complicity in human rights abuses under international law. It highlights potential breaches of export control rules and exposure to secondary sanctions, particularly where companies made sales despite Iran’s documented record of violent crackdowns.
The authors call for urgent action, including classifying shotguns and paintball markers as dual-use products subject to strict end-user verification, closer scrutiny of financial intermediaries including crypto platforms and new pathways for victims to seek justice.
They argue that without accountability, foreign firms and evasive intermediaries will continue to arm Iran’s security forces with tools of repression.
Iran submitted Cause of Death: Unknown by Ali Zarnegar after a selection process that excluded films by independent and dissident filmmakers.
Among those left out was the critics’ favorite It Was Just an Accident, secretly filmed by internationally acclaimed director Jafar Panahi, who is banned from filmmaking.
Panahi's drama was in turn submitted to the Oscars by France while fellow dissident filmmaker Alireza Khatami’s The Things You Kill will represent Canada.
Shahram Mokri’s Black Rabbit, White Rabbit has also been selected by Tajikistan.
Panahi’s film, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, was selected as France’s submission from a shortlist that also included Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague and Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life.
Oscars rules allow submissions in the category for productions "largely in the hands of citizens or residents of the submitting country."
The plethora of films by Iranian filmmakers has stoked some criticism, however, as LA Times columnist Glenn Whip wrote in an article titled, "The Oscars’ international feature category is broken. But there’s no easy fix".
"All this leads to a question raised annually: Isn’t there a better way to choose movies for the Oscars’ international feature category, one that sidesteps the politics of repressive regimes and produces a list of films that are the best the world has to offer?" he wrote.
The global presence of Iranian directors highlights both the richness of Iran’s cinema and the challenges artists face under domestic repression.
Earlier this month, an association of independent Iranian filmmakers called on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to overhaul how it accepts films from countries under authoritarian rule, warning that the current system legitimizes state-controlled cinema bodies.
In a letter to the Academy, the Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association (IIFMA) said the Farabi Cinema Foundation, which oversees Oscar submissions from Iran, enforces censorship and sidelines independent voices at home and abroad.
Many Iranian talents, facing censorship and restrictions at home, have fled abroad. Panahi remains in Iran under travel and work restrictions, but his French residence gives him the chance to participate in the Oscar submission process.
Mohammad Rasoulof, whose The Seed of the Sacred Fig was Germany's Oscars submission last year, was previously sentenced to prison and now lives and works in Germany.
While Iranian cinema has global reputation for its exploration of social themes, independent filmmakers operate under a system of strict censorship at home.
The government requires script approval and screening permits by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, punishing those who challenge political or social taboos with bans, imprisonment or exile.
Haalvsh reported a heavy security presence from early morning, with forces stationed at key intersections to deter gatherings marking the 2022 crackdown, when security units opened fire around Zahedan’s Grand Mosalla and the Makki Mosque after Friday prayers.
Rights groups say at least 66 people were killed that day, with later tallies from Baluch activists and Iran Human Rights putting the toll at about 96–107 and more than 300 wounded.
Human Rights Watch documented unlawful lethal force in a December 22, 2022 report, and Amnesty International and other monitors have cited shots to the head, neck and torso.
A year later in 2023, protesters clashed with security forces in Zahedan on the anniversary, with rights groups reporting injuries and internet disruptions while authorities said the city was calm, Reuters reported then.
In September 2024, Iran's top Sunni cleric Mowlavi Abdolhamid publicly criticized Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei over the lack of accountability.
According to a report by the Center for Human Rights in Iran to mark the third anniversary, a trial of state perpetrators ended with light sentences for a handful of low-level officers and no punishment for senior commanders, calling it evidence of impunity and alleging families were pressured into silence.
Authorities have previously blamed “terrorists” and rioters for the 2022 bloodshed and said force was used to restore order, with provincial officials denying excessive force.
