Blinding As A Weapon (9): Shahin, Shot with at Least 90 Pellets

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.

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 a Kurdish man who wants to be called Shahin to protect his identity.

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Shahin has at least 90 lead pellets lodged in his body after being wounded on September 22, 2022. His face alone holds 20 pellets, two in his eyes. He was shot from 10 meters. Doctors say that lead pellets are carcinogens and must be removed from his body, at the cost of a million tomans (about $24) per pellet. But the two pellets that went through his eye and destroyed of the retina cannot be taken out as they have penetrated too deeply into Shahin’s body.

Pictures of Shahin at the hospital tell a horrifying story. His eyeball protrudes from its socket and the doctors were forced to stitch the eyelids together so that, perhaps, his eyeball would return to its normal position.

Kurdistan has always endured extra security measures under the Islamic Republic and IranWire must keep Shahin’s identity and medical records confidential, especially since in recent weeks security agencies have summoned and threatened many injured protesters, to silence them.

Chased by a Drone After Being Shot

The nationwide protests started in Kurdistan after Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian-Kurdish woman, died in the custody of morality police in Tehran. At 6pm on September 22, six days after the outbreak of protests in various cities, including towns in Kurdistan, Shahin’s life changed forever.

It was getting dark and units of the riot police, on foot and on motorcycles, were cracking down on protesters across Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province. Shahin was among the protesters. The security forces were executing a pincer movement on the crowds, with motorcycles approaching from one side and those on foot from the other side. Shahin and several other protesters entered a side street.

“The policemen on foot followed us into that side street,” he says. “The street had been blocked a hundred meters from me. I was stuck between the policemen and those who had blocked the street. I ran into an alley. When I was 10 meters into the alley I heard one of the agents shouting “Go into the alley.” I turned my head to see if they were chasing me. Then I saw him raising the gun and he shot directly at me. I saw a flash and fell to the ground. I put my hand over my eye and it was filled with blood.

A resident opened the door to his house and Shahin and other protesters ran into the yard. His hand was filled with blood. There was an old bathroom on the side of the yard. Shahin ran to the bathroom, held his head under water and tried to wash the blood off his face.

“I returned from the bathroom to the yard,” say Shahin. “A sound was coming from the sky, and when I looked up, I saw a drone. I threw myself back into the bathroom. It took only a few seconds for the policemen to arrive outside the house. They waited five minutes, calling us out. They got no answer, and everyone was silent. The police went and the drone moved away. I stayed there for half an hour, then I called my friends, they came and we left the neighborhood.”

Three Surgeries, Two Pellets Out, Two Pellets In

Like many other injured protesters, Shahin avoided going to a government hospital. His friends took him to a private clinic. The nurses and the doctors locked the doors to the clinic and the operating room. They washed his injuries and his eyes. In the end, however, on the advice of the doctors, Shahin left for Tehran because of inadequate medical facilities in Sanandaj and the security umbrella over the city.

After arriving in Tehran and going to hospital, Shahin was taken into surgery. The first operation was to repair the cornea of his left eye. Four pellets had entered this eye and surgeons removed two of them but the other two could not be extracted. One of the pellets was lodged next to his optical nerve.

A week later, surgeons stitched together the eyelids in the injured eye because Shahin’s eyeball was inflated and was protruding from its socket. They left the sides of the eyelids unstitched so they could continue treating the eye with medication and eyedrops. His eye remained closed for two weeks until the inflammation subsided.

The third surgery was to repair the second retina and lasted five hours. The doctor informed Shahin that half of the retina had been destroyed because of the impact and heat of the pellet. The doctors injected an oily liquid behind the retina to prevent it from coming apart and, after four months, the liquid remains behind the eye. Shahin’s eye itself retains only 10 percent of its previous vision. The lower half of the eye cannot see, and the upper half sees only a dark silhouette of the world.

Shahin’s treatment continues but, after his latest examination, the doctors told him that, at best, they might be able to restore another 10 percent of the vision to his injured eye.

IranWire’s medical advisor endorses this diagnosis and added that, unfortunately, there is no way to save the eye because medical science has yet to learn how to restore vision to a damaged retina.

Despite discounts given by private clinics, Shahin has already paid more than 45 million tomans for his surgeries. But he also has pellets that remain in his body. Doctors have told him that lead pellets can cause cancer and must be removed.

Shahin lost his job after his injury which has created financial problems. He says that whenever he touches his face, he feels the pellets.

Shahin was hospitalized for three weeks after his surgery. Then he was quarantined for a month to protect his eye from contamination. He still cannot gauge distances well and for weeks he moved cautiously so that he would not injure himself. Doctors have told him that he must not put any pressure on his eye because of the pellet lodged next to his optical nerve: even lifting a heavy object can displace the pellet and inflict more serious injuries.

Living with the Loss

“You cannot cross a river without getting wet.”

Shahin repeats this sentence to himself and says: “When something has to be done, it has to be done one way or another, and we did it this way. When I feel the pellets with my fingers, I cannot say that I love them. but I must live with them and accept that, like my eye injury, some of them will remain with me for the rest of my life. I have accepted what happened with all my heart and I am proud of it.”

What would he tell the gunman who shot him at close range if they ever meet? After a moment, he answers: “I will only look at him. I would stare him in the eye. He would understand what I mean.”