Jafar’s thought

Time: 9 AM, one of the days of winter.

Location: Shush Metro

As I come out of the metro, a cold burning sensation hits me. To get to the other side of the street, I climb up the spiral stairs of the pedestrian bridge, which is right in front of the metro. As I reach the other side of the street, after passing by a few blacksmith and ironworker shops, next to the tall wall of an old factory, lies the body of a man, covered with a dirty sheet, with only his feet sticking out, turning blue. There are a few coins scattered around him. The shopkeepers say that this was his nightly hangout spot and he passed away in last night’s cold. I call 110, 137, and 125 in hopes of finding an organization to remove his body from the coin-drawn line. Each one passes me on to the next, promising to follow up.

It is one o’clock in the afternoon, I am heading towards the metro to go back home. The funeral is still there, half a meter away from the tall wall. Now the sun is shining directly above his head, warming him up bit by bit…

Time: A few months later, 9 AM, one of the summer days.

Location: Qeytarieh

As I walk up Sahil Street, the municipality is replacing old garbage cans with new ones. As I reach the slope of the street, the smell of sewage fills my nostrils. I make 137 calls to find out the reason; they ask for the exact location and promise to take care of it. Three hours later, I receive a call from an unfamiliar number. When I answer, a woman introduces herself and asks if I can still smell the sewage. After confirming that the drains have been cleaned, she thanks me for informing them and hangs up. I feel happy in my heart and continue on my way with a satisfied smile. Every few steps, memories of that cold day in Shush metro flood my mind and shake my brain. It’s not that much of a hassle; all this difference can be seen in a 35-minute metro ride…

Perhaps the homeless shelters in Tehran come to mind with a warm meal and a place to sleep; a place where people are respectfully guided inside and after showering, changing clothes, and eating a warm meal, they are led to a warm room with a clean sheet and blanket and finally fall asleep in complete safety and peace. But this image often does not reflect the reality outside. Homeless people are usually forced and coerced to these centers in order to keep the capital’s showcase clean, their personal belongings are taken away, and they are forcibly transferred to addiction treatment camps. “Lili Arshad”, the head of the Transitional Center for Reducing Addiction Damage in Women (Khaneh Khorshid), had said in an interview with Shargh newspaper a while ago that because there is not enough treatment for addiction in these centers, the person becomes severely addicted after leaving the center and after obtaining drugs, they experience overdose, and often times even emergency services are not willing to revive them

In a recent conversation with Mrs. Lili Arshad, we have sat down to discuss and talk about this topic, which you will read about in the following.

Madam, in your opinion, despite the fact that the municipality has announced an increase in Tehran’s soup kitchens, why do many homeless people still prefer to use parks and streets instead of going to the soup kitchens? Many of them say that they are taken to these soup kitchens under the name of charity, but they end up in addiction camps or they do not show us respect…

One part of the reason why they don’t go to the shelters is exactly this. Another issue is that these actions have two sides. One part is related to those who make decisions and are in charge, and the other part are the agents who implement these decisions and policies. The group that is supposed to do this work is not really justified and they have not received the necessary training on how to deal with these individuals. For example, they do not have the right to deceive and take advantage of a homeless person who is facing problems with violence and inappropriate methods. They must be justified in how to behave, what tools to use, and how to encourage and motivate people to succeed. People do not feel safe and respected, and based on the experiences they have had during years of homelessness, they have been told many times that they are being taken to a shelter, but…

It is necessary to build trust among the target group and justify why “we are taking you, for these reasons”. Or at least have someone accompany them so that they can trust and go somewhere and talk about these issues, so that they know and believe that it is in their best interest and will help them.

The next issue is that sometimes they are told that the shelter is far away and they have to bear the cost of transportation themselves, and often these individuals are not able to afford these expenses. On the other hand, although it is claimed that there are a large number of people who are homeless and need to be arrested, when they are arrested, their expectations are not met. In fact, a person who goes to a shelter for a certain period of time and stays there, first of all, their problems are not solved and secondly, they do not have the skills or tools to deal with this issue and they return to the point where they were before; meaning they are still struggling, their family does not welcome them, and they do not have a job. So how can this person maintain their health? In general, because these things do not happen, their trust in these programs and their agents decreases, or their level of participation and support in these programs decreases. The next point is that

Dear Madam, my other question for you is whether any changes have been made in the laws for those who do not have identification documents during all these years that you have been working in this field or not?

Unfortunately, even though over the years I can confidently say that we have had connections with the highest ranking officials and organizations such as the Civil Registration Organization, Municipality, Ministry of Interior, Health and Welfare (if I were to list all the names, it would be lengthy) in order to gain their opinions. When we bring up issues in meetings, they are very supportive and have good acceptance, but in practice, nothing has happened so far. I have even talked to deputy prosecutors about existing laws that have not been enforced, such as a law from the 1930s that allowed a mother to obtain an ID for her child. But these laws are not currently being implemented, and this has been one of our problems in the past ten or eleven years – when our focus has clearly been on homeless women and their children. The lack of identity documents for this group prevents them from having a medical services booklet, causes problems for their children’s education and school, and many other inhibiting issues that

Thank you very much for accepting my request for a conversation and for taking the time to do so.