Runaway girls to Tehran have ‘increased by 12 percent’
A member of Tehran’s City Council has reported a 12 percent increase in the number of women and girls running away to the capital and said that statistics on girls who return home after running away cannot be disclosed.
Massoumeh Abad, a City Council member, expressed “regret” during a Friday interview with the Nasim news agency on Mehr 2nd regarding the increase in the number of women and girls “fleeing” to Tehran.
Ms. Abad added that these individuals have entered the capital from various points across Iran, and the “Tehran Municipality Message Center” has only been able to identify these individuals within the “Tehran City Center area.”
The Message Center is an organization that identifies runaway women and girls in Tehran and attempts to facilitate their return to their families and place of residence.
According to Ms. Abad, “unfortunately, the number of people who return home but subsequently flee again is high, and no statistics can be provided in this regard.”
It appears that this Tehran City Council member announced based on statistics from this center that the number of girls “fleeing” to Tehran has increased by 12 percent compared to last year.
Ms. Abad, however, did not announce precise figures for the number of these girls in 1394 and the first six months of 1395.
“Runaway girls” refers to girls and women who flee their homes and families for various reasons and turn to society for shelter.
These escapes occur while, according to 1383, the director general of the Office of Social Harms stated that approximately 80 percent of girls in Iran are “recruited by corruption gangs” within the first 24 hours after running away.
Hadi Motamedi had stated at that time that “the majority of girls running away from home occur in the age range between 15 to 30 years.”
Based on announcements by responsible officials in 1381, approximately 700 girls and in 1382 approximately 2,500 runaway girls were identified and collected in Tehran.
In recent years, the phenomenon of “runaway girls” has become a social problem in Iran, but responsible officials refrain from publishing statistics in this field.
Based on a confidential report published in 1385 by the Educational Deputy of the Ministry of Education and Training, in addition to an unprecedented increase in numbers, a decrease in the age of “runaway girls” to 9 years was also announced.
Sociologists and social analysts cite poverty, family problems, and traditional strictness from fathers, mothers, or both as factors in girls fleeing their homes and families in Iran.
Source: Radio Farda
