Iranian women speak out against brutal crackdown : NPR
Iranian protesters gather on Enghelab (Revolution) Street during a demonstration in Tehran, Iran, January 8, 2026.
Sohrab/Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
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Sohrab/Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
The death toll from ongoing protests in Iran has exceeded 6,000, according to the American news agency Human Rights Activists News Agency.
With the recent partial lifting of the internet and communications blackout, more videos of violence and death are leaking from the country, while more Iranians are speaking out about their experiences.
Over the past few weeks, an NPR producer contacted several people in Iran to tell their stories. People were terrified by the government’s brutal repression and would not allow us to record their voices.
Ultimately, three women agreed because they want the world to know what is happening in Iran, on the condition that we protect their identities. Here are their stories:
On January 8, an unemployed content creator left her home in Karaj, a suburb of Tehran, and took to the streets.
She had heard Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the former Shah of Iran, encourage people to participate in the protests sweeping the country. She added that many people were chanting anti-regime slogans.
“We saw so many people. People were there with their young children, their elderly parents, a man in a wheelchair. It was incredible. The groups were getting bigger and more confident. I will never forget the feeling of ecstasy I felt when we lit the rotten flag of the Islamic Republic on fire.”
But then things started to deteriorate. The content creator claims her 18-year-old neighbor was shot dead by security forces. Then government forces began mowing down more protesters over the next few days.
“They have always been murderous. But this time it was much more serious and horrible since they were ordered to shoot directly.”
During the same period, a housewife interviewed by NPR said her husband left their home in Karaj to join the protests. He never came back.
She went to the Tehran morgue and was told she would have to pay more than $6,000 to collect her husband’s body and sign a document claiming he was a member of the regime’s paramilitary forces, which was not the case.
“They said if you contacted anyone or told anyone, we would take your daughters.”
The housewife says that she and her daughters are very afraid and do not dare to leave their house. And yet, she said, people still protest.
“I hear my neighbors singing at night and sometimes very briefly in the street. But unfortunately we don’t go out anymore.”
Even being at home isn’t safe, said a third woman who worked in publishing.
“They are killing people in their homes. The other day, in my alley, they pushed someone into the trunk of a car and kidnapped him. None of us dared to say anything because I saw how easily they shot. I don’t want them to kill me. I really don’t want to. I don’t want them to shoot me.”
The former publishing employee remembers seeing a young protester shot dead.
“I saw blood in the street. He was a human being who wanted to live, who wanted to shout for his rights. His cry was all he had. Is this the answer to the screams, to the bullets? Why is no one doing anything?”
She believes the protests, sparked by anger over Iran’s crumbling economy, have changed nothing.
“Nothing. The protests are only causing more deaths. They are shooting at us and killing all the young people. The prices have risen more and more and we are poorer.”
But the content creator believes the protests must continue.
“I could go out and get killed. But whatever happens, there’s one thing I’m sure of: We have nowhere to go. This is our home. And even though that can’t happen to me, I want the generations after me to know freedom. Yes, we’ve lost many lives, but that’s no reason to turn back.”
According to her, despite all the lives they have lost, they cannot afford to take a step back. Their fight must continue.
