Blinding As A Weapon (16): Alvandiani Hopes The Shooter Will One Day Open His Eyes

As IranWire has reported, hundreds of Iranians have sustained severe eye injuries after being hit by pellets, tear gas cannisters, 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.

In this series of reports, 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. IranWire can make their identities and medical situations available to international legal authorities.

This is the story of Yaser Alvandiani, a 34-year-old artist and athlete who was trapped and shot in a blind alley by three riot police officers during nationwide protesters in September. Alvandiani has put his works on sale to pay for his eye surgeries and treatment.

***

“Life is our one and only stage of artistry/ We each sing our song and depart/ Forever though the stage stays/ Happy the song that is remembered”

This is a poem that Alvandiani sometimes whispers to himself. His life used to revolve around art and athletics, but for the past five months he has been going from town to town looking for a job to earn money for his medical expenses, according to his friends. He has also put his wood carvings and metal engravings on sale on his Instagram page.

While in fourth grade, Alvandiani started wrestling and in 2003 won a national gold medal in the sport. He has tried other sports as well, from tug of war and Kung fu to kickboxing and Thai boxing.

Alvandiani had another passion: arts. After receiving a diploma in electronics, he started working and got married, but his interest in the arts did not wane. He learned wood carving and metal engraving and became a professional plaster worker and decoration maker.

His father was a plasterer as well, so Alvandiani had been familiar with stucco and plaster design since childhood. Now, however, his vision is impaired, and he cannot follow his artistic career anymore.

Shot Directly in the Eye

It happened in the western city of Hamedan in the late afternoon of September 20. Protesters were chanting anti-government slogans in and around Buali Sina Square. The police fired warning shots into the air and to the ground, but the demonstrators did not disperse. Then, riot police on motorcycles shot at the protesters while others fired teargas, forcing the protesters to retreat.

The protesters took shelter in the alleyways around the square and continued to shout slogans. Alvandiani was trapped in a blind alley by three riot policemen. They shot pellets at his torso and legs before surrounding him. One officer hit him from behind with a rifle butt, and, when Alvandiani fell to his knees, he shot him in the left eye.

A pellet penetrated his eyeball. He has removed some pellets from his body by himself and left the others where they were.

“Is my eye open?” Alvandiani asked the people who found him. They said it was open, but he could not see anything with the left eye.

After five months, the eye is smaller than before and distorted, and the eyelids are usually inflated.

The Overflowing Hospital

A person close to Alvandiani says he was taken to hospital the same night and remained there for four days during which he underwent surgery. Alvandiani was then taken to a Tehran hospital where he had a second surgery that lasted seven hours. The pellet was removed from his eye.

The doctors told Alvandiani’s friends that he had to be discharged after only one day because of the high number of patients suffering from eye injuries.

Dr. Rouzbeh Esfandiari, a former doctor with Tehran Emergency Services, tells IranWire that “there had been a hemorrhage in the vitreous body, the gelatinous substance that fills the eyeball between the retina and the lens. The doctors removed the vitreous humor and replaced it with silicone oil. A hemorrhage occurs if a foreign object enters the vitreous body, and it puts pressure on the retina. In such a situation either the bullet itself hits the eye’s nerve layer or the hemorrhage inflates the vitreous body, and since the vitreous body is next to the nerve layer it can separate the retina from this layer. This is what happens in these kinds of traumas.”

Insurance Doesn’t Pay for Injured Protesters

For many years, injured protesters have been forced to pay for their treatment out of their own pockets because the insurance refuses to pay. And this applies to the protesters who have been injured in the eye during the ongoing wave of demonstrations.

Alvandiani has spent a total of at least 60 million tomans for his treatment so far, and he does not even know how many pellets remain in his body.

The right eye, the healthy one, cannot correctly measure distances and, as a result, he cannot create artworks anymore.

This symptom is seen among protesters who have sustained eye injuries in the first weeks after being shot. They cannot move around easily, they fall frequently and cannot discern distances, but doctors say the brain gradually adjusts itself.

Once, Alvandiani’s friends asked him about the officer who shot him, he said, “The person who shoots at our eyes must have expected a reward in exchange for shooting a compatriot or any other living being. My hope for him is that one day he will understand and opens his eyes.”