Iran: Schoolgirls’ Sufferings From Burns to Disappointment

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In a fire occurred some 7 years ago in a girls’ school in Shin-Abad, 29 girl students were burned in their classroom but their cry for help was not heard by the Iranian regime officials. Today, they are still crying out for help, but the regime is paying no attention.

Shin-Abad, a district in Piranshahr City in northwest Iran, is now one of the country’s most well-known villages.

This village gained special attention on 5th of December 2012, when its girls’ schools caught fire due to old and inefficient heating facilities; 29 students were severely burned, 3 of whom lost their lives.

Of the remaining 26 injured girls, 12 were found in critical conditions and had to undergo numerous surgeries.

To date, these students who are now 15-year-old adolescents, are wondering why in a country that has a “sea of oil” they have not been looked after. They are still carrying the heavy weight of their trauma with them, with no joy for life or hope for future.

These students have a lot to say, but don’t know where to go or who to talk to and are disappointed at the regime officials.

One student expresses her frustration and says: “I am deeply saddened. The older I get, the sadder I feel. Why  no one is hearing us? I want to play, I want to live; but how can I when I look like this? I’ve lost all hopes. Ever since I was a child, I always dreamed of becoming a guitarist one day; but how can I pursue that dream when I’ve lost my hand? I hate to go out, so I have imprisoned myself for a while now; people fear us and we are scared of them too; which is why we avoid going out altogether”.

These were the words of just one of the victims, who caught fire in the blink of an eye. Her name is Ameneh. She has been undergoing countless surgeries to date, which she talks about: “They have anaesthetized us so many times that we can’t even be anaesthetized anymore. These surgeries have been useless, and only hurt us more. Why can’t the Health Ministry send us abroad? We were told by a doctor, who had come from overseas to examine us in a congress, that our faces can be improved with only 4 surgeries overseas. Why isn’t our future being considered? We didn’t choose to burn ourselves, did we? Why should we be living and studying in a place that has no (proper heating) facilities?”

In a land that has the world’s second biggest gas reserve, the simple plastic surgery of burn victims shouldn’t be so hard. The governmental authorities have not attended to any of these girls whatsoever; if they had any intentions of looking after these girls, they would have done so by now; our country has some of the best doctors and surgeons, who are able to do great surgeries for only 1 to 30 million Toman. In Tehran alone, more than 300 plastic surgeries are done a day; so how come these victims are an exception? Why aren’t they receiving the treatment they need?”

These schoolgirls are suffering from the consequences, whilst billions of dollars are being plundered and spent on countries like Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Iraq; the Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran use the Iranian people’s wealth to build equipped hospitals overseas, in order to support terrorism in those regions.

For 6 years, the parents of these girls have followed things up with lawyers and doctors, and after so long, have finally managed to organize an overseas trip for further medical treatment which was scheduled for after the completion of school exams, in June 2018. However, one of the regime’s parliamentarians in Piranshahr has denied the news which  once again has taken away the hope of the victims and their parents.

It is highly unlikely that the regime would ever consider treating these girls; especially given that its history is filled with oppression and plunder for the past 40 years; these girls are among the many other Iranians who are being continuously neglected.

The people’s problems and pains will go away only with a regime change in Iran, which is what the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) will be demonstrating in their Grand Rally on June 30 in Paris.

 

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