Healthcare workers in Iran are being detained, threatened, and in some cases killed for doing their jobs: treating injured patients during ongoing protests. Doctors, nurses, paramedics, and hospital staff are reportedly targeted for providing care without reporting patients to authorities. This is a clear violation of medical ethics, international humanitarian law, and the principle of medical neutrality.

The Iranian government has deliberately disrupted communications nationwide, making independent verification difficult. However, the inability to freely communicate must not be used as a justification for silence or inaction. When an authoritarian regime suppresses information, the burden should not fall on victims and healthcare workers to meet impossible standards of “confirmation.”

I am a healthcare worker and part of the Iranian diaspora in the United States. Members of the diaspora, along with families and professional networks, are compiling credible information, including names, dates, locations, and firsthand accounts of detained and targeted healthcare workers. These reports exist because official channels inside Iran are intentionally obstructed.

Medical neutrality is not conditional on casualty counts or perfect documentation. It is an established international principle that requires immediate defense whenever healthcare workers are punished for treating patients.

We call on international medical and human rights organizations, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Physicians for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and relevant UN bodies, to:

 1. Publicly reaffirm medical neutrality in Iran and condemn the detention, intimidation, or harm of healthcare workers for treating patients.

 2. Call for the immediate release of detained healthcare workers and an end to reprisals against hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and medical staff.

 3. Establish and clearly communicate secure channels for diaspora healthcare professionals to submit documentation safely and responsibly.

 4. Advocate for independent monitoring and accountability, even when full casualty numbers cannot yet be confirmed.

 5. Center the protection of healthcare workers as an urgent humanitarian priority, regardless of political context.

Silence, delay, or excessive procedural barriers undermine the very principles humanitarian and advocacy organizations exist to defend. Healthcare workers must not be punished for saving lives.

We urge international organizations and governments to act now, stand with Iran’s medical community, and uphold the fundamental right to provide and receive medical care without fear.

Healthcare is not a crime. Treating patients is not a crime. Medical neutrality must be defended.