Common Questions

What were the Mahsa Amini protests?: A wave of nationwide protests that erupted across Iran in September 2022 after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in morality police custody. They spread to all 31 provinces and became the largest challenge to the Islamic Republic since 1979.Source: Hengaw
Why do Iran war casualty figures differ so much?: The gap between government and independent casualty counts in the 2026 war follows the pattern from the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests, where official figures ran at one-quarter to one-third of Hengaw tallies. Hengaw counted over 5,300 killed by 20 March 2026; the Health Ministry reported 1,444.Source: Hengaw
Who suppressed the Mahsa Amini protests?: The Intelligence Ministry under Esmail Khatib was responsible for internal surveillance and protest suppression during the 2022 uprising. Israel killed Khatib in an airstrike on Tehran in March 2026; the US had posted a $10 million bounty for information about him.Source: Lowdown
Has Iran changed since the Mahsa Amini protests?: The apparatus used to crush the protests remains intact. Capital punishment for perceived dissent continues: a dual Iranian-Swedish national was hanged on espionage charges in March 2026, and military forces have been documented relocating into civilian spaces during the current conflict.Source: Hengaw
What is the difference between official and Hengaw casualty counts in Iran?: Hengaw counts consistently run three to four times higher than government figures, a pattern first documented during the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests. In the 2026 war, Hengaw counted 5,900 killed by 20 March while the Health Ministry reported 1,444.Source: Hengaw

Background

The protests erupted in September 2022 after the morality police killing of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in custody. The uprising spread across all 31 provinces and became the largest sustained challenge to the Islamic Republic since its founding. The ministry responsible for suppressing those protests was run by Esmail Khatib, whom Israel killed in an airstrike on Tehran in March 2026.

The Mahsa Amini protests established the benchmark against which war-era repression is now measured. Hengaw, the Kurdish human rights monitor that tracked protest killings in 2022, is producing the same independent counts in the current conflict; the credibility gap is identical: wartime government figures run at one-quarter to one-third of Hengaw tallies, following the pattern set when official counts undercounted Amini protest deaths.

The protests never produced systemic change; the apparatus that crushed them, surveillance, arbitrary detention, executions, remains intact and is now directed at wartime dissent. A dual Iranian-Swedish national was hanged for espionage in March 2026, continuing the pattern of using capital punishment as a deterrent against perceived internal threats.

How the World Sees Them

Iranian diaspora

The protests energised diaspora communities and strengthened the credibility of organisations like Iran Human Rights as verification sources. That diaspora network now feeds information on wartime casualties through the same channels established in 2022.

Iran (government)

The Islamic Republic declared the protests a foreign-backed conspiracy and never acknowledged the casualty gap between official and independent counts. The same framing is applied to civilian deaths in the current conflict, where Health Ministry figures run at a fraction of Hengaw tallies.

Kurdish communities

Mahsa Amini was a Kurdish woman from Saqqez; Kurdish-majority provinces were disproportionately affected in both the 2022 protests and the current war. Hengaw, founded to document Kurdish rights abuses, became the primary independent source for both events.

Western governments

The EU and US imposed targeted sanctions on Iranian officials following the 2022 crackdown, setting a precedent of accountability that now frames diplomatic responses to wartime civilian casualties. Protest documentation networks continue to supply verification evidence to international bodies.