“من در حال حاضر در حال مطالعه هستم”

“I am currently studying.”
Turhan, the bearer of beauty (Gomshadzahi).

For years, the burning pain and suffering of Baloch women have sat on the forehead of the city, and no one has cried out for their oppression. They have always been taught and told: You are helpless, what use are you to society? Sit in your place and be content with being a housewife.

We have heard countless times that girls have been neglected, assaulted, or forcibly abducted and subjected to abuse. But which legal institution has taken action to protect them, if we don’t say that we are criticizing them harshly? Which institution, organization, and which responsible person’s heart is not broken for the suffering of those parents whose beautiful flower has withered under impure thoughts and lustful desires? Now that you have raised your voice in protest from the pulpit of religion and faith, everyone is rushing to ask why you have brought this up in such a way?

“Why, when a man from the lineage of faith and a symbol of compassion and humanity raises his voice to stop corruption, obscenity and crime, is he attacked? You who claim to be followers of God and the Prophet, if your own honor was being violated, would you remain silent? What do you know about the turmoil in the hearts of those innocent girls? What do you know about the atrocities committed against them in that moment? What do you know about the thousands of times they have wished for death in that moment? What do you know about the suffering they have endured to have this happen, to be spoken of by everyone?”

No, you don’t know! This was not the first time that this brutal crime happened for everyone to remain silent and secretly resolve the matter. “A teacher was tortured in a military base”, “A teacher’s body was found under a bridge on the way to Bam”, “High school girls were repeatedly harassed”; these were just a few headlines of events that took place in Sistan and Baluchestan, but the reactions to them were nothing but silence.

“A 9-year-old girl in Delgan was kidnapped just a few weeks ago. She was assaulted, her body was burned, and the attacker buried the burnt body so it wouldn’t be found. However, some time later, he regretted his actions and was transporting the body on a motorcycle to another location when the motorcycle fell into a ditch, exposing the body to the people present. But instead of bringing the case to court and seeking justice, the matter was silenced. Was there anyone to support this 9-year-old girl whose blood was spilled so mercilessly?”

Why is it that when a justice seeker has cried out for your honor, everyone is protesting against him for why he has announced it from that podium? Please tell me, what have you done for this and the thousands of other cases that have happened? What support have you given to the victims – both girls and boys? You constantly say it shouldn’t be made public. Why not? So that the crime can continue to exist? If you were in the place of that father who went to Molana Tayeb and shed tears, and the father who said “I went to the law, Molana, and they told me you were the 41st person whose daughter has been sexually assaulted by one of the perpetrators”… Secondly, don’t you know that two of the criminals and the fifth perpetrator are in prison? So why do you cover up all the confessions? Why do you arrest and unjustly imprison the supporters of the assaulted girls? Why do you invite everyone to remain silent? Was

Now they have made the area so secure that even the families who complained are restricted and not allowed to be interviewed by domestic news agencies. However, even in such a traditional and authoritative region, if you were to create a peaceful and supportive space for the victims and their families, perhaps out of forty-one people, twenty would show up for justice, but you told both the girls and women and also Molana Tayyeb, who was the voice of the girls of Iran Shahr, to either prove it or face legal consequences.

One of the girls who was attacked says: “I entered the alley, a Peugeot 405 car stopped next to me and forcibly pulled me into the car; my chador fell off the car. They took me to a house that they had coordinated beforehand. I begged them that I was fasting, I am like your sister, but like four wild animals they attacked me… I had filed a complaint with the judiciary two weeks ago, but they did not refer me to legal medicine. After two weeks, when even the physical effects of the assault had healed, they sent me to legal medicine with the insistence and support of the people and the governor at the time.” Where in the law does it say that a girl who has been assaulted must be referred to legal medicine two weeks later? If this had happened in the capital, would the treatment be the same?

While all the religious scholars of the region were and still are supporters, other victims are not willing to go to the judiciary. Because this is Sistan and Baluchestan and the traditional society has trapped nationalistic prejudices to the point that everything remains silent. Because women and girls in this province are condemned to ethnic-religious discrimination; they must be silenced, remain silent, and currently three people are in detention and people are still seeking clarification. And the case of the girls of Iran Shahr and those who were arrested for supporting them is lost in the twists and turns of “law”.