Our Barefoot Children

It’s Monday, 18 Aban (9 November), I come home tired from school. My mind is totally occupied with children, their problems, their issues. It seems that every year family problems and consequently children’s problems are getting worse. In an attempt to change the course of my thoughts I decided to start reading the newspaper. I’m immediately drawn to the article “Rise in child kidnappings in the south of Tehran – Barefoot with syringes and blood”. I begin reading. Suddenly I feel a cold sweat all over my body. It is impossible to relax and concentrate on what I am reading. I have to repeat the same sentence several times. Especially as I read the interview with the mother of one of these children. I feel absolutely terrified and at the same time helpless. The article brings tears to my eyes. I repeat the sentences in my mind several times, “Here at least two children go missing every month”.

Is there no one responsible to ask why children should go missing in one of the southern areas of Tehran? There is no one to even look for these children, indicating that these children are often never found. If they are found they are no longer a child anymore and have grown up overnight, each with a catalogue of terrible experiences at such an early stage in life. Has anyone asked where these children might be? Is there anyone to think that these children who’ve been kidnapped, lost, are missing or any other word that may describe their condition more respectfully, when found are no longer normal. In fact they are a pulp of a child. According to a mother’s description, they are chained up in the house. Children who are harassed in this way will normally lose their human identity and before long, it is these children who will go on the streets and seek out other victims. For those who aren’t found, there’s the possibility that their body parts have been sold or that they’ve been forced into other lucrative business…[Continue Reading]