Iran protests: Isolation, fear and beatings – Life inside the country’s notorious detention cells
Mina left solitary confinement a few days ago.
She has now been arrested twice by Iranian forces for taking part in the protests sweeping her country.
Speaking to Sky News through voice notes sent on an encrypted messaging app, she spoke about her experience and why she is prepared to risk her life to help secure change in Iran. We have changed her name and withheld some details to protect her identity.
“Our whole life has changed,” she says.
Mina, not her real name, spoke to Sky News shortly after leaving solitary confinement after being detained taking part in the protests
Before the death of Mahsa Amini in mid-September, Mina – an academic in her early 30s – was focused on her PhD studies in the Kurdish region of Iran.
Now, she says the daily lives of Iranian and Kurdish Iranians have been transformed by the constant protests triggered by the young woman’s death.
Usually, Mina would be studying in the library and hanging out with friends. Instead, a few days ago, she was detained and confined in a solitary cell by the regime’s intelligence office.
“This is a place where detainees are not transferred into the justice system. They undergo beatings and torture,” she explains.
The torture is sometimes physical, mental or a combination of the two. Mina is too afraid to describe what happened to her in her voice messages to us.
Two of her female friends were recently released from the juvenile detention centre in Sanandaj, the capital of the Kurdish region.
Mina describes their experiences: “When women’s rights activists are detained, they [the police] don’t attack you physically.
“Instead [the police] threaten, intimidate and try to frighten them. They insult people’s beliefs. It is an intense psychological violence.
“That woman’s future is then also targeted. They can make the woman lose her job and make her life difficult. This creates crippling fear.”
Mina has also been detained – she says illegally – during previous protests, facing interrogations and the seizure of her her laptop and mobile phone.
Now she has a lawyer who was able to help her escape detention this time and pay bail.
After being held in a cell, Mina was taken to a building she describes as a house. She was held there once again in solitary confinement before her recent release.
Mina believes the authorities have arrested so many people that they have run out of cells to hold them.
She knows of two other student protesters who were also not held in a traditional cell.
“They were held for a week in a huge basement full of protesters. They told me that they were beaten by cables and iron sticks.
“The jails are full of prisoners so now they use houses and basements to detain protesters.”
A man is kicked by Iranian plain clothes security forces, one of whom is holding a gun
The threat of loss of life is considerable. An estimated 244 protesters have died, including 32 children, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran.
“When we speak about fear for life, every person in this movement fears for their own lives and the lives of their fellow protesters,” she says, reflecting on the events of the current and past protests.
“We see guns firing in front of us.
“We have woken in the night shocked out of sleep at the sound of bullets, sirens and the smell of gunpowder and burning on the streets.
“We see how many people are being killed so the fear of losing one’s life still exists.”
Protesters who survive have other fears.
“Many of us are concerned about what is going to happen and about the heavy price we have paid inside the country because of the protests and strikes.
“We are also afraid of the hope we have pinned on change.
“Our fear and concern is that this hope will be lost or crushed.”
Much of the news coverage of the protests has focussed on Tehran, the capital of Iran.
But some of the biggest protests have happened in the Kurdish region of Iran, an area that both Mina and Amini call – or used to call – home.
Tensions have been particularly high there. A recent Sky News investigation tracked the intensifying crackdown being carried out by Iran’s security forces against the Iranian Kurds.
Verified videos online show police roving the streets on motorbikes and firing onto civilians. Plains clothes officers lurk among them in crowds. Tear gas canisters and bullet cases can be found on the floor, as seen in this video provides by human rights group Amnesty International.
One video, shakily filmed from a window in Sanandaj, shows security forces patrolling and firing on a residential street, with a fire burning behind them. Some of the men are heavily armed and nearly all have their faces obscured as they appear to shoot at local shops and people’s homes.
Mina fears that the brutal tactics of the police have ground down some protesters.
“I think these protests will continue but maybe not with the intensity of the first days and weeks, partly because the crackdown has intensified.
“But, I think some people will continue despite that.”
Iranian Kurds have been protesting since Amini’s death, with videos showing huge crowds at her funeral on 17 September.
Huge crowds gathered for Amini’s funeral in her hometown of Saqqez in the Kurdish region of Iran
Mina remembers the worry she and those around her felt for the 22-year-old, who was killed after being detained by officials who claimed she wore her hijab (head covering) “improperly”.
Throughout our interview Mina calls Amini by her true, Kurdish name: Jina. Under Iranian convention, many Kurdish names are not allowed and so instead Amini has become widely known by her Iranian name – Mahsa.
“Yes, the current protest started with the death of Jina but this is about institutional violence against all the people and all the individuals living in this society,” she explains.
She gives an example of how the regime’s restrictions on women have a direct impact on that person’s family.
In 2009, Mina was taken to the notorious Vozara Street, home to the morality police’s detention centre.
Mahsa Amini, pictured here in this portrait, was 22-years-old when she died
They said, as they would say 13 years later to Amini, that Mina’s hijab was unsuitable. They said Mina’s family and in particular her husband are also responsible for her covering. They said if Mina’s hijab was unsuitable again, Mina’s husband had failed in his duty.
She explains: “The families become involved because they are summoned too. They insult them, they call them without honour. They say these things to husband, to brother, mother and father.”
The protesters on the streets of Iran are also demanding action on a number of economic, social and environmental issues.
What does Mina hope will come from these protests, that previous demonstrations have been unable to achieve?
“The hope and desire is that a fundamental change will come,” she says.
Mina admits change may not happen now, or perhaps ever, but believes the fact protests have continued in the face of militaristic policing shows the seed of anger that formed when Amini died has grown roots and is now anchored in the Iranian people.
“I and many other people have concluded that maybe it is true that change will not happen right now but in the coming months or years, it will achieve the result people want.
“So hopefulness is greater than hopelessness. We will continue.”
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
Donald Trump said he will ask the Justice Department to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged ties to former US president Bill Clinton and other prominent Democrats.
The call from the US president comes as fresh questions about Mr Trump’s own relationship with the paedophile financier were raised as his name came up multiple times when 20,000 pages were released from Epstein’s files earlier this week. Mr Trump has called claims to link him to Epstein as a “hoax”.
Mr Trump said he would ask US Attorney General Pamela Bondi to look into any alleged involvement between former Democrat leader Clinton and paedophile financier Epstein. She later wrote on X that she would assign the investigation to Jay Clayton, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Along with Mr Clinton, Mr Trump said he would also ask the Justice Department to investigate former treasury secretary Larry Summers, and Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn founder, who is also a prominent Democratic donor.
Former US president Bill Clinton. File Pic: Reuters
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All three men were mentioned in the 20,000 Epstein-related documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. None of them, however, have been accused of wrongdoing in the Epstein case.
In a lengthy post on his social media platform Truth Social, Mr Trump said: “Now that the Democrats are using the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans, to try and deflect from their disastrous SHUTDOWN, and all of their other failures, I will be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him.”
Mr Trump also said: “Epstein was a Democrat, and he is the Democrat’s problem, not the Republican’s problem!
“They all know about him, don’t waste your time with Trump. I have a Country to run!”
What do the named parties say about alleged links to Epstein?
Angel Urena, deputy chief of staff for Mr Clinton, said in 2019: “President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some time ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York…has never been to Little St James Island, Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico, or his residence in Florida.”
Epstein had been a JPMorgan client from 1998 until 2013.
“The firm deeply regrets any association with this man, and would never have continued doing business with him if it believed he was using the bank in any way to commit his heinous crimes,” JPMorgan said in a statement in September 2023.
Summers, former Harvard University president, recently issued a statement saying he has “great regrets in my life.”
“As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement,” the statement said.
Similarly, Mr Hoffman told Axios in 2019 he regretted his relationship with Epstein.
“My few interactions with Jeffrey Epstein came at the request of Joi Ito, for the purposes of fundraising for the MIT Media Lab.
“Prior to these interactions, I was told by Joi that Epstein had cleared the MIT vetting process, which was the basis for my participation.
“My last interaction with Epstein was in 2015. Still, by agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice. For this, I am deeply regretful.”
A 47-year-old New Jersey man died last year from alpha-gal syndrome, a red meat allergy caused by a tick bite.
His death is believed to be the first documented death from a meat allergy triggered by tick bites.
Symptoms for alpha-gal syndrome – which in 2011 was first linked to bites from the Lone Star tick – can include hives, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, severe stomach pain, difficulty breathing, dizziness and swelling of the lips, throat, tongue or eyelids.
The reaction to the foods that cause the symptoms can be delayed, and usually present themselves a few hours later, unlike some other food allergies, which occur soon after eating.
The new research follows the case of a healthy airline pilot who went camping in 2024 with his wife and children. They had steak for supper. This was unusual, as he rarely ate meat.
He woke at 2am with violent pain in his abdomen, vomiting and diarrhoea.
The next day he ate breakfast and went on a five-mile walk.
A fortnight later, back in New Jersey, he went to a barbecue, where he ate a hamburger. About four hours later, he grew ill. Shortly afterwards, his son found him on the bathroom floor unconscious.
Am operating theatre. File pic by iStock
His son called paramedics, and he was admitted to hospital, but the man was announced dead later that night.
Blood tests conducted by researchers revealed evidence of the alpha-gal syndrome. Proof that it came from a Lone Star tick is inconclusive.
The researchers made the link after a statement from the man’s wife, who had said he had 12 or 13 “chigger” bites near his ankles earlier in the summer.
But the conclusion makes sense, as people in eastern America sometimes mistake the bites from mites with those from larval ticks.
More than 100,000 people in the U.S. have become allergic to red meat since 2010 because of the syndrome, according to one estimate.
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Dr Scott Commins, a leading alpha-gal syndrome researcher at the University of North Carolina, called his death an “unmitigated tragedy”.
“Totally unnecessary and with increased awareness, this won’t happen again,” he said in an email.
Three Chinese astronauts have successfully returned to Earth from their nation’s space station after their capsule was damaged.
The team deployed a red and white striped parachute as they descended, before landing at a remote site in the Gobi Desert in Asia on Friday.
The astronauts – Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie – had been due to return on 5 November to end their six-month rotation at the Tiangong space station.
However, their journey back was delayed by nine days because the Shenzhou-20 return capsule they were due to travel in was found to have tiny cracks.
These were most likely caused by the impact of space debris hitting the craft, China’s space agency said.
There are millions of pieces of mostly tiny particles that circle the Earth at speeds faster than a bullet.
They can come from launches and collisions and pose a risk to satellites, space stations and the astronauts who operate outside them.
With the Shenzhou-20 out of action, the crew – who travelled to the space station in April – used a Shenzhou-21 craft instead, which had brought a three-person replacement crew to the station.
The launch of the Shenzhou-21 craft from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province, China, on 31 October. Pic: Kyodo via AP
The Chinese space agency said the stranded taikonauts – the Chinese word for astronauts – had remained in good condition throughout.
The first module of the Tiangong, which means “Heavenly Palace”, was launched by the Chinese state in 2021.
It is smaller than the International Space Station, from which Beijing is blocked, due to US national security concerns.
China’s space programme has developed steadily since 2003.
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In a long term plan to advance its orbital capabilities, China plans to land a person on the moon by 2030 and has already explored Mars with a robotic rover.
The Asian nation’s latest space mission brought four mice to study how weightlessness and confinement would affect them.
An engineer from the Chinese Academy of Sciences said the study will help master key technologies for breeding and monitoring small mammals in space.
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