Masoumeh Askari, a retired teacher and single provider
of her 14 year old son, who was imprisoned in the women’s ward of Evin Prison,
was sentenced to 5 years in prison in Iran.
Masoumeh Askari was arrested in Tehran during the
nationwide protests last August. She was transferred to Qarchak prison in
Varamin and was released after several days. She then was arrested again by
security forces in December 2018 and transferred to the women’s ward of Evin
Prison after spending one month in solitary confinement at the Ministry of
Intelligence detention in section 209 of Evin Prison.
Sharia Judge Moghiseh sentenced her to 5 years
imprisonment on February 18, on charges of ‘assembly and collusion’ and is currently
serving her sentence at the women’s ward of Evin Prison.
Previously, Iranian teachers took to the streets in at
least 32 cities across the country on Thursday, May 10, 2018, to stage
protests. Security forces in Tehran violently clashed with the protesting
teachers, resulting in the injury and arrest of several teachers.
Teachers once again started their nationwide strike on Sunday March 3rd, 2019 in at least 31 cities across Iran.
******
According to the state-run ISNA news agency Feb. 23rd,
Naemeh Sadaat Bani Kamali, a women’s affairs adviser to the Golestan Province
in Iran Education Department, announced at a news conference that the number of
girls between the ages of 10 to 14 who were married in 2017 was 914 in this
province alone. She also revealed that six marriages of girls under the age of
10 have been reported in the province, which is without a doubt more than the
actual number.
Citing the statistics for children left out of school in
2017, Bani Kamali said that in Golestan Province, 12,826 children have dropped
out of school, out of which 6,294 were girls.
She added that the economic problem is the most
important factor contributing to school dropouts. These statistics are higher
in secondary schools and more specifically among girls. According to the
government official, half of the children dropping out of school are girls.
Earlier, in an interview with the state-run
IRNA news agency on February 6, 2019, Zahra Hemmati announced that a total of
98 under-15 marriages took place in Ilam, 94 of which were girl children and
four were boys under 15 years of age. (The state-run IRNA news agency –
February 5, 2019)
Parvaneh Salahshouri, head of the women’s
faction in the mullahs’ parliament, spoke about this issue in a meeting in
Tehran on child marriages. She said, “We continue to see the marriage of girls
between 9 and 14 years of age… Some 6 percent of those who get married are
girls between 10 and 14.” (The state-run IRNA news agency – January 6, 2019)
The Iranian regime’s experts have estimated
that 180,000 of under-18 child marriages take place in Iran, every year.
******
The Iranian women’s soccer team was deprived of
competing at the Azadi Stadium, and their match with the Belarusian soccer team
will be held at the Ararat Stadium.
According to the previous schedule, a friendly match
between Belarus and the Iranian women’s soccer team was scheduled to take place
at Azadi Stadium. Mehdi Taj, president of the Iranian Football Federation, had
announced that the game would be held at the Azadi Stadium. Unfortunately,
without paying any attention to the rights of the women’s soccer players, the
Football Federation and its officials, contrary to their promises, did not
allow the game to be held in Azadi Stadium, and once again deprived women of
their freedom to enter the stadium. (The state-run ISNA news agency – February
23, 2019)
In another event, due to the negligence of
government officials, the women’s soccer players’ game in the women’s soccer
league in Iran was delayed in Tehran, causing many problems for the soccer
players who traveled from Sirjan to play with the Azarakhsh team in Tehran.
The delay was caused by changing the game
location from Ekbatan Stadium to Resalat Stadium and the lack of coordination
and negligence of the authorities. The game, which was scheduled to begin at 12
pm (local time), began at 14 pm.
“They promised us that the game will start at
exactly 12:00. Our players were waiting on the sidewalk until 13:00, at 13:30
they were authorized to enter, and the game started at 14:00. and all the
players who had plane tickets between 14:00 and 16:00 missed their flight. We
feel sorry for the capital’s host,” said Mastureh Yazdani, the head of the
Sirjan Municipal Team.
Earlier, in a soccer match between the
Azarakhsh and Zob Ahan teams, the game was held on a ground full of mud. The
female soccer players were covered with mud and had to change their official
uniform after the first half-time. (The state-run ISNA news agency – February
22, 2019)
