Nowadays we are seeing multiple reports of children harassment in Iran, makes wonder how many unreported cases are out there that may have been left in corners because they may involve important persons or simply people are powerless to discuss what harms have been done to them because they fear the result may not be in their favours.
a couple of young woman that had been barreled phsysically and sexually over course of passed year had reported secretly through videos on ʸᵒᵘᵗᵘᵇᵉ and or phone calls to forginer Iranian news reports that do no have ties within government such as BBC Persian that their families had told them keep it to themselves because Society will see them as shame. Previously many Iranian religious figures (among those who are not well known or significant in broader aspect of scoeity) that basically woman or children whose virginity have been taken before marriage are subject to being abondoned in society.
i can tell you that as far as I am not a credible source or reporter, I have seen many physical harresment during my early heats of study in school, many of these harreses were simply not reported to parents because children feared the worst will happen to them. I was beaten and harresed many times becuSe of my opinions, questions and drawing during school time, I only reported 2-3 to my parents with a very toned down version of story.
You can imagine how many reports each day are not reported – i would say many.
and Iranian scholar from University of Tehran estimated that:
The pooled estimate of the prevalence of child physical abuse in both genders was 43.591% (CI -216.146, 303.328%), and the pooled estimate of the prevalence of child emotional abuse was 64.533% (CI -195.205, 324.270). In regards to child neglect, the pooled estimate of the prevalence was 40.945% (CI -274.989, 356.879). The heterogeneity of the studies was not statically significant (I2 = 0.0%).
These numbers are quiet shocking when you consider how much mental damage hese children will carry over the years that will be left with them for a life time perhaps.
Follow the study in below link to get an idea of issue:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4277799/
Today I saw children gathered in Perth CBD and playing music, they were representing charity under one of the many churches in Perth.
In Christianity, Pslam 23 – is often used to explain the importance of youth and generally protection of people in christianity which happens to be the most popular religion within Australia –
firthermore theough my studies I have cited:
“Letthechildrencometome,donothinderthem;fortosuch belong the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mark 10:1-15, New International Version).
• “Thingsthatcausepeopletosinareboundtocome,butwoe to that person through who they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin” (Luke 17:1-2).
• “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves” (Proverbs 31:8).
are also another verses which are speaking of those without power in need of protection.
Many churches in Australia offer such serives to heal those have been subject of neglect and problems during heir childhood, furthermore studies by (Carothers, Borkowki, Burke Lefever, & Whitman, 2005; Webb & Whitmer, 2003) have also proven majority of children have improved with support of church – id like to believe that the power of community and sense of protection is what makes children’s heal over time- it may not be the religion itself- i would like to think that religion is a strong amplifier to create such a healing power and safe environment for children.
in contrast within Iran, Islam does not have such role- many are aware and many articles have said people have double lives in Iran, low mosque attendance and basically you are required to lie to survive in Iran- this summarises where a harmed child would be placed, purgatory. Religious figures of mosque will have no power to help them but to act as singing verses to them as if they are performing vodoo that may work and within families their word may not be take seriously.
although I would like to emphasise that within major cities more families are coming to scene to publicly show their protest against such mechanisms but sadly within smaller communities and cities such problems are treated differently- for example many people still agree that physical punishment is a necessity for their children to learn better, many believe girls subjected to rape should keep their mouth shut because in future no one will marry them. To back this up many credible sources have cited that restoration of virginity is increasingly gaining popularity specially in major cities too.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/may/12/virgin-hymen-repair-iran
Article below have cited from various unnamed Iranian woman who had to go through restoring their virginity because they had to trade it initially for money.
furthermore Islamic rules itself supports Temporary Marriage as called “SIGHE” which basically allows temporary couple to engage intercourse legally through Islamic law for any purpose as agreed upon. This tactic also has been used for many purpose that’s I do not want to open up within this article.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/may/12/virgin-hymen-repair-iran
In concluson i would like to summerize that in some ways Iranian regime indirectly supports harm and physical and and sexual strike, in some cases within abuse of power and abuse of Islamic powers and this issue basically opens up children and young woman to a world that may cause them further harm.
i hope for a day where we can all happily play music for one another in streets of Tehran.
