Medics across Iran who are treating protesters report that they are being shot and specific areas of their bodies are being targeted. Iranian security forces are targeting women, firing shotguns at their faces, breasts, and genitals.

Doctors and nurses are treating demonstrators secretly to avoid their own arrest. They noticed that women arrive with different wounds than men. Men are most commonly shot with shotgun pellets in their legs, buttocks, and backs. They are showing up with devastating wounds from so-called birdshot pellets all over their bodies, fired at close range. Photos show Iranians with dozens of tiny shot balls lodged deep in their skin, Shots to the eyes of women, men and children are particularly common,

In November I wrote about reports that the Iranian forces were shooting live ammunition at protesters. It tracks that there is this kind of escalation now. The protests are not slowing and they continue to spread across the country. Iranian forces are getting more aggressive trying to intimidate protesters enough to stop the demonstrations.

The Guardian interviewed one doctor from the central Isfahan province who said he thinks the forces are targeting men and women differently “because they wanted to destroy the beauty of these women”. He’s traumatized by what he sees.

“I treated a woman in her early 20s, who was shot in her genitals by two pellets. Ten other pellets were lodged in her inner thigh. These 10 pellets were easily removed, but those two pellets were a challenge, because they were wedged in between her urethra and vaginal opening,” the physician said. “There was a serious risk of vaginal infection, so I asked her to go to a trusted gynaecologist. She said she was protesting when a group of about 10 security agents circled around and shot her in her genitals and thighs.”

Traumatised by his experience, the physician – who like all medical professionals cited in this article spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals – said he had a hard time dealing with the stress and pain he witnessed.

“She could have been my own daughter.”

Riot control practices are not being followed by security forces, according to some medical professionals, that includes the pro-regime Basij militia. One practice, for example, is firing weapons at the feet and legs to avoid vital organ damage.

One doctor from Karaj, a city near Tehran, said security forces “shoot at the faces and private body parts of women because they have an inferiority complex. And they want to get rid of their sexual complexes by hurting these young people.”

The ayatollahs are a misogynistic bunch so this targeted gender-based violence against women isn’t a big surprise. They don’t value women as human beings, but as property to control. These protests began over the actions of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, who was allegedly improperly wearing her headscarf in public. She was beaten and arrested by the morality police. She died in jail from her injuries. That set off the protests, first led by other women who stopped wearing their hijabs, and cut off their hair. Then men and young people joined in.

From September 16 to December 2, 1,641 protests were recorded.

The regime intimidates doctors with threats to discourage them from treating protesters.

Facing such dangerous conditions, a doctor from Mazandaran said she was removing pellets, which are sometimes metal and sometimes plastic, with the lights off to avoid detection. “The women are so ashamed to go to the hospital that many are treated at home and that’s very dangerous,” the doctor said.

On 26 October, hundreds of medics protested outside the medical council of Iran, and were shot with pellet guns by the security forces. A surgeon from Tehran treated his colleagues who were shot in their backs and legs while running away.

The surgeon said he treated serious injuries of at least five protesters who were shot at close range by pellet guns. “One of the injured people I treated wasn’t even protesting. He was a bystander … and thought he wouldn’t be shot at. They’re shooting blindly at everyone who’s not one of them.”

It speaks to the determination of the protesters that they continue to protest and accept the possibility that their demonstration will turn violent at the hands of the regime. Too bad the leader of the free world doesn’t speak up and say something supportive for those risking their lives for basic human rights. Remember when the United States used to do that kind of thing?