Qom in Iran is a conservative and religious city, often popularised for being the place from where most of the country’s leaders and presidents have received their education. However, the city is in the news lately because of all the wrong reasons. As per the reports, the school-going girls in Iran were deliberately poisoned and the first case was found in Qom. The reason claimed for this abhorrent act was to stop them from attaining education.
Iranian Deputy Health Minister, Younes Panahi revealed that “some people” were poisoning school girls in Qom. In November 2022, many cases of respiratory poisoning among school-going girls were reported. The victims complained of symptoms of nausea, headache, coughing, difficulty in breathing, and heart palpitations. A few of them were also hospitalised after their condition worsened. Majid Monemi, the deputy governor of Lorestan province said, “50 girls at a high school in Borujerd were poisoned”.
Parents of the victims were seen protesting outside the governorate to seek an explanation from the education officials in this regard. They expressed their concerns and asserted that they do not want unsafe but “safe and secure environment” for their girls in schools.
After the revelation came out in public, Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, ordered a judicial probe to address the matter.
The reporting of cases indicating crimes against women is not a new phenomenon in Iran. The country has been in the spotlight for treating its female population as “second-class citizens”. Last year on the 1st of October 2022, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was killed in police custody. Amini was detained for allegedly not wearing Hijab properly and violating the country’s strict dress code.
Difficulties endured by females in Iran
The Iranian revolution of 1979 brought with it a new Constitution for the ‘Islamic Republic of Iran’. The fresh enactments barred the atmosphere of coeducation and the educational institutions were shut down for the next 3 years.
After the institutions reopened, the curriculum was modified to focus on the Islamic values. In text books, women were shown covering their bodies fully and spending time in the kitchen cooking. Books that are considered to be a great source of knowledge was turned into a means through which the oppressive government tried emphasising on gender specific roles.
The female population was also restricted to take up certain disciplines, restraining their choices. Single women were stopped from studying abroad to protect them from getting influenced by outer society.
In 2006, the Ministry of Health and Education limited enrollment of women to universities located in their hometowns. In 2011, women were not allowed admission into the best universities in the country. They were compelled to compromise on the quality of education, a basic necessity of an individual. A year later, women were found beaten and bruised by the university security personnel for not complying with the Islamic dress code.
The draconian limitations related to the education of women, which started to take shape in 1979, continue to breathe and influence the lives of hundreds of lakhs of female students in Iran even today.
In Iran, girls and women are treated egregiously and are tethered by the strict laws drafted to harass them. The diminution is not limited only to education of females but is prevalent in other areas as well such as employment, mobility, political representation, etc.
