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Attempts to Keep Iranian Teen Girls Off The Streets
By Riad Zien Edeen, IOL Correspondent
TEHRAN, August 27 (IslamOnline) – Iran has been suffering recently from the problem of young girls escaping their parental houses, trying to build a life of their own. Eventually, they end up victims of addiction, prostitution rings, or in “green houses” set up by the Iranian authorities to be socially reformed.
The social problem is felt in major cities, especially the capital Tehran. According to a report published by Spieda Zinky Magazine Saturday, August 24, 2002, girls running away from their homes are aged 15 to 20, and 50% of them headed for Tehran. The report added that most of the girls fall victims to prostitution or drug addiction, as they are usually hunted by careless youth.
In a related incident, the Iranian police arrested a prostitution ring comprising 40 teen girls, and run by a 19-year-old girl, called Mariam Cogolo (Little Mariam). Police sources said that they were trying to contain the rapidly spreading phenomenon by establishing social care houses, called “Green Houses”, where social workers receive the busted young girls, try to listen to them and solve their problems, or convince them to return home.
The investigations of the Cogolo case showed that the ring used to hunt young men, seduce them, get them to addict drugs, empty their pockets.
There are various reasons behind the girls running away from their homes, on top pf which comes divorce or separation between mother and father. Also, bad father-daughter relations, suppression by fathers or big brothers (to the extent of beating), bad company, and step fathers and mothers, according to Spieda Zinky Magazine.
In its continuous attempts to contain the dangerous social dilemma, the Iranian police assigned specialized patrols to tour the streets of Tehran and other major cities. The task of these patrols is to search for running girls and take them to the Green Houses or send them back to their parents.
However, the strict measures applied by the police force received strong rejection, with some papers accusing the police measures of aggravating the problem, not solving it. Writers and social workers call for addressing the roots of the problem, socially and economically, as well as providing the right conditions for early marriages.
For their part, conservative groups welcomed the police measures, even asked for more strictness to combat the signs of westernization in the Muslim country. They even called for banning the use of receivers and satellites.
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