Hengaw

Hengaw or Hengaw Organization for Human Rights is a human rights NGO registered in Norway. It focuses on reporting and documenting human rights violations in Iran, especially against its Kurdish minority.

History

Hengaw was founded in 2016. Their reporting on the treatment of Kolbars has been used by the United Nations. Since 2022, their reporting on the crackdown of protesters in Iranian Kurdistan during the Mahsa Amini protests in 2022 has been used by various international media outlets.
Hengaw first reported the death of Armita Geravand in 2023. Geravand was a 17-year-old Iranian girl who fell into a coma on the Tehran Metro on 1 October 2023 after an encounter with members of Iran's morality police.
Members of Hengaw have reportedly been threatened by elements of the Iranian security apparatus while located outside of Iran, and their families inside Iran have been arrested.
The report by Hengaw at the end of 2025 showed a significant increase in human rights-related deaths compared with 2024, with at least 1,858 executions in prisons during 2025.