Iranian sisters, 20, have bones broken & hair ripped out after being dragged from beds by masked men over protests

TWO Iranian sisters who were kidnapped in the dead of night have been brutally tortured by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, it has emerged. Taraneh and Romina Rahimi, 20-year-old twin sisters, had the hair ripped from their head and their bones crushed as punishment for joining anti-regime protests in January. Romina Rahimi was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment Credit: Romina Rahimi Taraneh Rahimi was sentenced to death by hanging Credit: Taraneh Rahimi The young women were still in high school when they were taken from their beds with bags over their heads by the IRGC in February. It has now emerged that Taraneh has been sentenced to death by hanging for her participation in the demonstrations on January 8 and 9. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! He sister Romina has been given a 25-year prison sentence. After months of desperate searching their mother, Marzieh Nourmohammadi, was finally able to track down her girls at Dowlatabad prison in Isfahan in May. Romina and her sister were reportedly brutally tortured by the IRGC Credit: Romina Rahimi Taraneh was allegedly coerced into making a confession Credit: Taraneh Rahimi As months of merciless torture had passed, her twin girls were completely unrecognisable by the time of her first visit. Their scalps were skin-bare and mottled and their faces were heavily bruised, according to their US-based cousin Masoud Nourmohammadi. He told The Guardian: ” She did not recognise her own children: they were beaten up, badly swollen faces, bruises all over their body, broken elbows, knuckles, feet, and they basically had no hair because they would pull their hair and drag them from one cell to another cell. “She found out that they had been in solitary confinement.” Most read in The Sun People at the January 8 protests in Tehran Credit: Getty Masked IRGC members are understood to have snatched the twins from their beds in February Credit: Getty Interrogators allegedly threatened Taraneh with the rape of her sister to coerce her into signing a confession Radio Free Europe correspondent Fereshteh Ghazi reported that according to local sources, the girls’ confessions were extracted under torture, including beatings and electric shocks. These forced statements reportedly then became the main evidence in the trial. Neither of the women have been seen by their family since they were sentenced. Tens of thousands of people were killed in the January protests Credit: Getty IRGC soldiers march in formation in September 2024 Credit: Shutterstock Editorial Masoud, said the unequal sentences made no sense to him, adding that he struggles to understand any decisions made by the Islamic Republic. He said: “They do not follow their own law. “There is an 18-day period that lawyers can go and appeal in a lot of [execution] cases recently that has not happened. “They just sentence and take the kids and execute them and hang them. So I mean, nothing, nothing really makes sense.'” The 43-year-old from Utah said he believed Taraneh was sentenced to death because of her innocence. He continued: “You can see her eyes and you know right away that she is a kind person. “My sense is they’re looking to put fear within the people, to say: ‘Look, no matter how fine you are, no matter how innocent you are, we can get you, and don’t come to the streets any more.” No evidence of the sisters’ involvement in any violence was provided in court, it is understood, and they had never participated in protests before. Masoud hopes his cousins’ case will ignite a international drive to overthrow the regime. At least 511 people have been executed in Iran so far in 2026, according to Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, including at least 29 people in connection with anti-government protests in January. Over 33,000 people died in protests in Iran earlier this year where people across the country, outraged at decades of repression, were demanding fundamental change and a political system that respects human rights and dignity. Last month, the UK and 30 other countries signed a joint statement condemning the executions of the January protesters and describing them as an attempt to silence dissent. Amnesty International said: “Six months after Iran’s security forces unlawfully killed thousands of men, women and children across the country over a two-day period, the international community’s failure to take meaningful action to pursue international justice is indefensible. “The world must not allow escalating cycles of crimes under international law against protesters to be erased or overshadowed by ongoing efforts to reach a lasting US‑Iran deal to end the war.” Beating, torture and sexual violence are believed to be common weapons place at Iranian prisons. In a June Sun Exclusive, a brave prisoner opened up about the torture and abuse she suffered for over five years at the hands of Iranian prison guards. Shabnam Madadzadeh, 37, was thrown behind bars at the rogue nation’s most notorious prison for simply opposing the regime. Solitary confinement, hour upon hour of intense interrogation, and torture became normality for Shabnam at the barbaric Evin Prison. She said: “It was there, in that night of helplessness and grief, that I made a vow: I would never, ever compromise with this regime.” 1 comment1