The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights recently reported the death of Barzin Hamzeh-Zadeh, a 16-year-old Iranian boy who had succumbed to injuries sustained from torture by the Iranian government.
Hamzeh-Zadeh was arrested at age 15 in 2022 during participation in the Jin, Jiyan, and Azadi movements, a series of protests advancing women’s rights in Kurdish regions of Iran and Syria. Throughout his week-long detention by Iranian security forces, the boy was subjected to regular beatings. It’s reported that he passed away whilst undergoing surgery for his injuries in an Iranian hospital and importantly, was also coping with severe mental trauma resulted from his ordeal.
According to Hengaw, a confidant of the boy’s family relayed that Hamzeh-Zadeh was in good health prior to the protests. However, the weeks following his release were marked by complications such as sporadic loss of consciousness and eventual kidney failure linked to his torturous detainment. Alarmingly, it also came to light that the Iranian government had issued directives to the boy’s family to refrain from publicizing his death, a mandate they courageously disregarded.
Hamzeh-Zadeh’s tragic story is not a sole case. Numerous detainees from the same protests have reported similar treatment at the hands of Iranian officials, with many facing immense difficulties post-release. In a chilling statistic, the rights group claimed that nearly 300 children were among those arrested during these protests.