This story producer in collaboration with SBS Persian
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TRANSCRIPT
From her home in Brisbane, Shirin fears for her youngest brother in Iran.
She says he was injured by security forces during the latest demonstrations.
"They put a gun to his head and didn't shoot him, but they hit him in the head with a rifle butt. He went into a coma and had to be hospitalised."
Shirin's name and identity have been obscured for safety reasons.
She hasn't heard from her family in days and is worried her youngest brother will be arrested.
As far as I know, when someone is hospitalised, if they are admitted under their own name, there is a high chance that they (security forces) may come and take them."
According to human rights groups, many injured protesters in Iran are not presenting to hospitals for this reason.
A healthcare worker in Iran has described the injuries she has seen to SBS.
"The wounded who were brought in had all been shot in the chest and the head; it was clearly a shoot-to-kill."
SBS has also spoken with a protester who travelled from Australia to Iran last month to see his family.
"A young man, maybe around 20, collapsed right in front of us. He was shot in the artery in his leg."
Iran's protests erupted in late December, triggered by public anger over soaring inflation and the collapse of Iran's currency, which hit a new low.
Over weeks, the demonstrations evolved into a nationwide anti-government movement.
There are estimates more than 42,000 people have been arrested since the protests began.
This is Zaki Haidari from Amnesty International Australia .
"There will be torture and ill-treatment of individuals in Iran prisons."
At the height of the protests in early January, Iranian authorities threatened the death penalty against protesters.
The United States claims Iran backed down, under pressure from President Donald Trump.
But there are concerns dozens of prisoners are still facing execution.
This is Haidari again.
"We gravely remain concerned about in that it'll happen without getting actual information out of Iran."
The scale of the crackdown is slowly emerging, as some Iranians sporadically find access to the internet.
Shirin, again.
"I truly say this with all my being, that my brothers' blood is not more precious than the blood of young people who were like bouquets of flowers."













