Imam Ali Society: Government Recruited Poor Children with Food Rations to Suppress Protesters
Hundreds of members and supporters of the “Imam Ali Society” stated in a statement that the Islamic Republic government has used a number of poor children by providing them with “a few bags of food rations” to “suppress” protesters in Iran’s streets.
In this statement, referring to children who were previously under the protective coverage of this society, it is stated: “We hear from some children that their friends and classmates have been called to the streets to suppress their compatriots, not to defend their own rights, but to defend the rights of others wrongfully.”
The signatories of this statement have sharply criticized the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran “instead of affection and friendship, sows seeds of hatred in children’s hearts.”
The statement adds: The Islamic Republic government, instead of “teaching peace and friendship, has placed their helmets on their heads in the most violent scenes that are harmful for children to witness, and put batons in their hands” in violent scenes.
The “Imam Ali Society” has interpreted this Islamic Republic action in such a way that by doing this “they have pressed a knife into the wounds of children so that complexes and festering wounds from deprivation, absence, and not seeing, break out this way.”
This statement is being released following the circulation of images of children under 18 years old with helmets and batons on some streets of Tehran to suppress protesters in response to Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody.
In some images, a number of these children are wearing flip-flops, which social media users have described as a sign of “poverty” of their families.
This is not the first time that the Islamic Republic has abused children to advance its own goals.
Beyond various protests, during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, a large number of children were sent to the fronts as soldiers and lost their lives in the conflicts.
Source: Radio Farda
