The numbers coming out of Iran are horrifying, as a report indicated that the Iranian regime's security forces have killed at least 16,500 protesters and injured 330,000 more in a brutal crackdown against anti-regime demonstrations.
Genocide Under Digital Darkness
— Amir (@4mirbasiri) January 18, 2026
January 17, 2026 | Source: The Sunday Times
Based on data from 8 specialized eye hospitals and 16 emergency departments across Iran, at least 16,500–18,000 people have been killed and 330,000–360,000 injured, including children and pregnant… pic.twitter.com/wFJU56r1JY
The report, compiled by doctors inside the region and reviewed by The Sunday Times, warns that the true death toll from the regime’s slaughter could be far higher, citing restricted access to hospitals and an almost total blackout of Iran’s communications systems. The vast majority of the victims were under the age of 30.
Professor Amir Parasta, an Iranian-German eye surgeon and medical director of Munich MED, said that even the country's doctors are in shock from the horror, despite having treated similarly atrocious wounds before.
"This is a whole new level of brutality," Parasta said. "This is genocide under the cover of digital darkness."
Arash Sigarchi, an award-winning journalist, former Iranian political prisoner, and managing editor of Voice of America’s Persian Division, shared a harrowing image of abandoned shoes, left behind in the aftermath of the regime’s brutal crackdown in the Iranian city of Rasht, where victims were reportedly burned to death.
At the Holocaust Museum in Washington, there is a room filled with shoes—silent witnesses to lives taken before the burning them. Now look at this photo. Shoes left behind after the Islamic Republic’s Nazi-like forces opened fire on unarmed Iranians whose only demand was freedom. In my city, Rasht, they were trapped in the bazaar, gunned down, then burned. If this is not a crime against humanity, what is?
At the Holocaust Museum in Washington, there is a room filled with shoes—silent witnesses to lives taken before the burning them. Now look at this photo. Shoes left behind after the Islamic Republic’s Nazi-like forces opened fire on unarmed Iranians whose only demand was freedom.… pic.twitter.com/1uCKrSoeGP
— Arash Sigarchi (@sigarchi) January 19, 2026
Suren Edgar, vice president of the Australian-Iranian Community Alliance also posted the image on X, writing:
"These shoes in Rasht are not art," Suren Edgar, the vice president of the Australian-Iranian Community Alliance, wrote on X. "They belonged to people trapped after regime forces set the historic bazaar on fire and shot those trying to escape.The imagery is unmistakable — an Iranian Holocaust unfolding in real time. Never forget."
These shoes in Rasht are not art.
— Suren Edgar (@suren_ed) January 19, 2026
They belonged to people trapped after regime forces set the historic bazaar on fire and shot those trying to escape.
The imagery is unmistakable — an Iranian Holocaust unfolding in real time.
Never forget.#RashtBazaarMassacre#Holocaust… pic.twitter.com/i9yc0cbn64
The protests in Iran have largely fallen silent under the weight of the regime’s brutal crackdown, as countless Iranians have been terrorized into submission for daring to demand freedom.
President Trump urged Iranians last week to continue protesting, telling them that help was on the way. Whether that help ever arrived, or ever will, remains unclear.
The reality in Iran stands in stark contrast to liberal Americans protesting ICE and the Trump administration from the safety of a free and safe society. If they want to understand what a real fight against authoritarianism looks like, what real tyranny and real bravery mean, they should look to the Iranians who paid with their lives simply for expressing their beliefs about their regime.