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Blinding as a Weapon

Blinding as a Weapon (38): Young Baluch Man Loses Eye, Has to Pay for Treatment

May 15, 2023
Aida Ghajar
4 min read
Younes Rigi lost an eye after being shot with pellets during protests that followed Zahedan's “Bloody Friday”
Younes Rigi lost an eye after being shot with pellets during protests that followed Zahedan's “Bloody Friday”
For the past several months, Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan province, has been rocked by weekly protests against the Islamic Republic
For the past several months, Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan province, has been rocked by weekly protests against the Islamic Republic
The weekly protests in Zahedan has been a symbol of defiance in the face of the repression unleashed by the security forces
The weekly protests in Zahedan has been a symbol of defiance in the face of the repression unleashed by the security forces

As IranWire has reported, hundreds of Iranians have sustained severe eye injuries after being hit by pellets, tear gas canisters, paintball bullets or other projectiles used by security forces amid a bloody crackdown on mainly peaceful demonstrations. Doctors say that, as of now, at least 580 protesters have lost one or both eyes in Tehran and in Kurdistan alone. But the actual numbers across the country are much higher. The report concluded that such actions by the security forces could constitute a “crime against humanity,” as defined by Article 7 of the Rome Statute.

IranWire has explored this question more deeply in an interview with Professor Payam Akhavan, a prominent human rights lawyer, special advisor to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and a former member of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

IranWire is aware of more than 50 serious eye injuries sustained by protestors and bystanders over the past five months. With the help of independent ophthalmologists, we have reviewed the medical records of around a dozen individuals and compiled a comprehensive medical report.

In the series of reports “Blinding as a Weapon,” IranWire presents the victims’ stories told in their own words. Some have posted their stories, along with their names and pictures, on social media. Others, whose real names shall not be disclosed to protect their safety, have told their stories to IranWire, which can make their identities and medical records available to international legal authorities and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Zahedan, the capital of south-eastern Sistan and Baluchistan province, has been rocked by protest rallies every Friday since September 30, 2022, when security forces killed nearly 100 people, in the deadliest incident in the widespread demonstrations triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in police custody. 

This is the story of Younes Rigi, a 26-year-old ethnic Baluch who took to the streets of Zahedan to demand justice for the victims of the city's “Bloody Friday” and himself became a victim of the security forces' brutality.

***

On October 14, 29 days after the start of the nationwide protests and two weeks after Zahedan's "Bloody Friday," protesters gathered again in and around Grand Makki Mosque amid heightened security presence. 

Mohsen Rigi, a 26-year-old Baluch man, left the mosque after Friday prayers and joined demonstrators in the streets, shouting slogans against security forces and calling for the release of those detained during protests.

After the march, as the demonstrators were heading home, plainclothesmen, members of the paramilitary Basij force and men wearing masks and black uniforms started shooting at the crowds, injuring many. Two of them fired at Rigi and filled his face, chest, arms and legs with lead pellets.

Some local residents opened the doors to their homes to the protesters, and Rigi took shelter in one of them. After two hours, as the situation had calmed down, the young man was taken to hospital.

Rigi underwent two surgeries during which a pellet was removed from his right eye, but the surgeons left those lodged in other parts of his body. 

After eight months, Rigi's eye can only distinguish between light and dark. Doctors have told him that as time goes by he might regain a a small percentage of his eyesight, but there is no guarantee.

The hospital did not accept his medical insurance and wants nearly 30 million tomans for the surgeries. 

Every day, Rigi looks at his damaged eye in the mirror, hoping for some miracle or a change for the better.

Who Is Younes Rigi?

Rigi was born to a large family with three daughters and three sons. His father is a laborer and he himself is a street vendor who sells gas canisters.

Sistan and Baluchistan, home to Iran's Sunni Baluch minority of up to 2 million people, has always been one of the most underprivileged provinces of Iran. 

Rigi lives in an underprivileged area and has been a street vendor since being a child. He has a diploma in accounting, meaning that he had to worked while attending school. Extreme poverty prevented him from continuing his education.

After his eye was seriously injured, a friend says, Rigi participated in Friday protests in Zahedan for several weeks: “Younes is tormented every day by thinking about friends and people in his neighborhood who died during the protests. These days he is always preoccupied and wonders what would happen if he loses both eyes forever."

“Whenever he wanted to participate in protests, he was thinking about his friends who had been martyred. Whenever he took to the street, he thought that he might get martyred, but he still repeats that God did not accept him as a martyr.”

In a video published by the news agency Haalvsh, Rigi can be seen in traditional Baluch costume. He puts his right hand over his injured eye, scratches the area around that eye and testifies that he has been shot with pellet guns during protests.

 

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