Premier Christian News has been told that some injured protestors in Iran are too afraid of going to hospital because of the threat of being targeted by the regime.
More than 30,000 demonstrators are reported to have been killed in the recent crackdown on demonstrations across the country, although officials claim the figure is closer to 3,000.
Attieh Fard is a Christian lawyer who was born in Iran. She told Premier: “Everyone knows someone who has been killed. So I believe that the numbers are more than 30,000 because it just doesn't make sense that we all know someone who has been killed.”
Many of those who survived the protests now live in fear and Fard said she knows of somebody who was seriously injured but too afraid to seek medical help.
“I had a call from someone whose friend had 300 pellet gunshots in their body and was scared of going to a hospital, because they have killed people at hospitals. The authorities have ordered doctors not to treat patients who were protestors and they have arrested doctors and nurses who treat those patients.”
The lawyer, who now lives in the UK, said some medical professionals are now “working on the ground” and that “if someone knows someone, they can have a nurse at home, perhaps, but it's very dangerous.”
She added that some reports show “authorities identifying protesters through CCTV camera and then hunted them, going to their homes and then shooting them in front of family members outside their homes”.
The protests, over economic hardship and political repression saw thousands of people take to the streets of Iran from late December 2025 until mid-January 2026 when authorities opened fire with live ammunition.
The unrest heightened tensions between Iran and the United States, with President Trump despatching a “massive armada” of ships and warplanes to the region.
It’s been announced that talks on a nuclear deal between the two countries are set to get underway later this week.
However, Fard told Premier she’s hopeful President Trump will attack Iran rather than agree a deal.
“Quite a lot of people are anxiously waiting for him to send that army and to start bombing Iran," she said. "This is perhaps the only nation in the world, that wants another country to bomb them. We are anxious, but I've had messages from inside Iran, people sending me messages saying, ‘why hasn't he started?’
“I don't think Iran is going to agree with his terms. So Iranians don't believe that a deal would help or save them. In the past, there were international talks, and then you had cycles of abuse, cycles of violence, where the Islamic regime was really violent. They gave some breathing space to the nation to calm down, and then they would crack down again. So I don’t think any deal now would help the Iranians.”