Interview by Shima Shahrabi

IranWire

“In international law, there is a concept known as ‘humanitarian intervention’ for situations in which widespread human rights violations are taking place. For example, in the attack on Iraq in 2000, which was carried out following a decision by the UN Security Council, the justification was the alleged presence of chemical weapons.”

Nasrin Sotoudeh, the prominent Iranian lawyer and human rights activist, spoke with IranWire about the conditions facing citizens inside Iran in recent days.

She said society is in a state of shock and disbelief, with people questioning one another about the scale of the violence.

According to Sotoudeh, the images circulating of bodies piled at the Kahrizak forensic center and blood flowing through the streets will remain etched in the public memory.

Sotoudeh noted that many people who have been “pushed to the brink” are now waiting for a US military strike.

“When a society finds itself powerless in the face of a despotic government,” she said, “it begins to look toward formal powers.”

IranWire: What is the atmosphere inside Iran after several days of a total internet blackout and the violent suppression of protests?

Nasrin Sotoudeh:If I were to describe it in one sentence, I would say it is an atmosphere of awe and disbelief.

When people meet, they ask each other, “Is it really possible for such a crime to happen on such a massive scale?”

This is happening while people’s lives are already under pressure from multiple destructive forces—crippling inflation, raids, arrests, constant surveillance, and a national currency that is losing value by the day.

All of this exists, but the widespread killings and the images and videos of the dead—of Kahrizak covered in black body bags—have created a deep sense of shock and psychological trauma across society.

IranWire: People experienced a complete internet blackout and only later saw these images. On a personal level, how did you react to what you saw?

Nasrin Sotoudeh:The first message conveyed by these events was one of limitless audacity, an audacity that first plunged an entire nation into silence so that the crime could be carried out in darkness.

Then came the desecration of the bodies. They piled corpses on top of one another and told families, “Go and find your children in this vast desert.”

I have personally received reports that families were pressured to declare their killed loved ones as “Basij” members.

In some cases, security forces tracked who the deceased had been with during protests to identify and trap others. They followed these leads into hospitals to hunt for the wounded.

I know many doctors who have been arrested, interrogated, or prosecuted simply for fulfilling their professional duty—treating the injured and then allowing them to leave without confiscating their identity documents for tracking purposes.

None of us can remain silent in the face of this.

IranWire: State media claims life inside Iran is continuing normally and that public spaces remain busy. How do you respond to this narrative?

Nasrin Sotoudeh:The idea that people can simply stop their daily lives entirely is unrealistic. A parent with a small child, a university student, or a school-aged child still worries about education, even when the future looks bleak. To create a sense of normalcy, it is natural for them to go to a park or a public place.

But wherever we go, the shadow of what we have seen does not leave us.

In one video, the camera moves for nearly twelve minutes over ground covered in bodies.

These are not images we will forget. In Kahrizak, black body bags are dragged across the ground while blood leaks beneath them.

In the streets, blood flowed alongside water in the gutters. This is not something that disappears from memory.

As I have said before, we are condemned to live in a tunnel of death—one in which any one of us can become prey at any moment.

IranWire: The possibility of war now looms over Iran. How do people inside the country perceive this?

Nasrin Sotoudeh:In international law, there is the concept of humanitarian intervention when human rights are systematically violated. In the case of Iraq in 2000, the intervention followed a Security Council process.

In Iran’s case, such stages have not been pursued through the Security Council.

Now, it appears that the decision may rest with the US president—currently Mr. Trump—acting unilaterally.

At the beginning of the protests, he said, “You go to the streets. We are with you,” but that support did not materialize.

Humanitarian intervention should be collective. Any meaningful action under Chapter VII of the UN Charter has been blocked by vetoes from China and Russia.

Even so, the US could have attempted to build a broader international consensus, but that has not happened.

What we are witnessing now is not the power of law, but the law of power, as UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned.

As for public sentiment inside Iran, many people are waiting for this strike. Many who have been driven to the brink see it as their last hope.

When a society feels completely powerless against tyranny, it begins to look outward.

IranWire: What concerns human rights activists most at this moment?

Nasrin Sotoudeh:Our greatest concern is that these crimes will continue in different forms. We are deeply worried about the number of detainees currently held in Kahrizak, about rushed trials without due process, about extrajudicial executions, the continued mistreatment of the bodies of the dead, and the harassment of their families.

We formally and unequivocally demand an end to this violence.