A leaked report appears to confirm that Nika Shakarami, a 16-year-old girl in Iran, was beaten to death by undercover security agents. She disappeared in September 2022 after joining protests against strict hijab rules. Her story sparked outrage worldwide.
Key points:
- Nika attended women’s rights protests in Tehran, burning her hijab
- She told a friend that police officers were chasing her, then went missing
- 9 days later, her family found Nika’s badly beaten body
- Iranian officials claimed she killed herself, but a leaked report tells a different story
Can we trust this new evidence about what happened to Nika? Read on to learn more disturbing details from the classified document.
The Leaked Revolutionary Guard Report
The BBC obtained a secret 322-page report from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, an elite security force that answered directly to the country’s Supreme Leader.
According to the leaked file, Nika did not kill herself. She was hunted down by an undercover unit called “Team 12” during the protests. They chased and violently arrested the teenage girl.
Nika was put into an unmarked freezer truck used by the agents. Her hands were tied. Then, officers savagely beat and sexually assaulted the 16-year-old until she stopped breathing.
Horrific Details of Nika’s Last Moments
The report transcribes shocking testimony from the undercover Team 12 unit involved in Nika’s arrest and death:
“Arash gagged her mouth with his socks. Sowas was sitting on her with his hands in her pants. She kicked at my face so I had to defend myself. I could hear the sound of the baton hitting her…”
“Is she breathing?”
“No, she’s dead.”
After seeing the document, experts confirmed it appeared genuine based on evidence like Nika’s official death certificate and her mother’s testimony of her fatal injuries.
The report concludes that Nika Shakarami was killed by the “sexual assault and strikes” from Team 12 agents. Yet, incredibly, they faced no punishment for her death.
Iran Accused of Brutal Crackdown on Protesters
Nika’s story is just one horrific example of the violence Iranian security forces used against anti-hijab protesters last year.
Thousands were arrested and over 500 killed during the government’s harsh crackdown, according to human rights groups. Many like Nika were young women or even teenagers joining the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement.
Despite repeated inquiries, Iranian authorities have not responded to the BBC’s report and findings about Nika’s killing by Revolutionary Guards.
The leak offers chilling evidence of the brutal lengths the regime was willing to go to silence dissent against the mandatory hijab rules and broader calls for reform.
Do you think the global outrage over Nika’s death could help pressure Iran to allow more freedoms for women and girls? Or will the government continue using excessive force against any future protests? Only time will tell the impact of this tragedy.
