A pair of Iranian twin sisters had their hair ripped out and their bones broken in a torture ordeal as punishment for joining anti-regime protests in January, it has emerged.Taraneh and Romina Rahimi were 19 and still in high school when they were snatched from their beds by masked men sent by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in the dead of night.Now, Taraneh has been sentenced to death by hanging for her participation in the demonstrations, and Romina has been given a 25-year prison sentence.After they were taken, their mother, Marzieh Nourmohammadi, spent an agonising four months desperately trying to find her daughters.The women were unrecognisable by the time of their mother's first visit to Dowlatabad prison in Isfahan in May.Their scalps were patchy from being dragged around by their hair, while their faces appeared bruised, according to a US-based cousin. Taraneh, who has ambitions of running her own horse stable in the future, was allegedly told that prison guards would rape Romina in front of her unless she signed a confession.Neither of the women have been seen by their family since they were handed their sentences. Romina has been given a 25-year prison sentence for taking part in the anti-regime protests Taraneh has been sentenced to death for her participation in the January demonstrationsIt is unclear why they were given different punishments, but the twins' cousin, Masoud Nourmohammadi, who lives in the US state of Utah, said he struggled to understand anything done by the Islamic Republic.'They do not follow their own law,' Nourmohammadi told the Guardian.'There is an 18-day period that lawyers can go and appeal but 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 said he believed Taraneh was sentenced to death because of her blatant innocence. 'You can see her eyes and you know right away that she is a kind person,' he said. '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."'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. Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran on January 9 Romina joined the protests on 8 and 9 January in Isfahan, along with 18 million others Taraneh has a love of horses and dreams of opening her own stable in the futureThis is despite the logistical difficulties presented by the war with the US and Israel that began on February 28.At least 16 women are among those executed.Activists have accused the regime of using capital punishment as a means to intimidate the population in the wake of the demonstrations. 'All executions, regardless of the charges, have a clear domestic purpose - to create fear and prevent new protests,' IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam told AFP.Taraneh and Romina joined the protests on 8 and 9 January in Isfahan, along with 18 million others. A month later, the twins were dragged out of their bedrooms with bags over their heads and given no explanation. 'The family didn’t know where they were,' Nourmohammadi said. 'They had no idea. They were searching for them everywhere, different courts, hospitals. Then my aunt received a call saying: "We have your girls, come to see them at the prison."'Witnessing her daughters in such a state was heartbreaking for his aunt, Nourmohammadi said. '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.'Marzieh Nourmohammadi, who raised her daughters, now 20, on her own, was barred from attending the trial.Their lawyers said Taraneh told the court that any confessions had been secured through torture. No evidence of the sisters’ involvement in violence was provided, it is understood, and they had never participated in protests before.'My mum lives with me,' he said. 'There’s not a single second that I pass her and she’s not crying.'Nourmohammadi, a healthcare IT specialist who arrived in the US from Iran 22 years ago, is going public with the story despite receiving death threats via text messages and social media from people who say they know his home address.He wants his cousins' case to instil a determination to topple the regime.