86% of Reported Child Abuse Cases Are Committed by Parents

The head of the country's social emergency services has reported that according to reports submitted to this organization last year, 60% of child abuse cases were committed by fathers and a total of 86% by parents. Hossein Asadbeigi stated on Sunday, September 24, in an interview with ILNA news agency, that 1,642 cases, or 60% of reported child abuse cases to 'crisis intervention centers', were committed by fathers. According to Mr. Asadbeigi, among other reported cases, 739 cases, or 26%, were committed by mothers, 20 cases by brothers, and eight cases by sisters. He noted that only 1.5% of reported child abuse cases were committed by strangers. The head of the social emergency services had previously stated on Saturday, July 29, that 75% of child abuse cases in Iran are committed by family members. The number of child abuse cases Mr. Asadbeigi referred to in his Sunday interview is close to the statistics of child abuse reported to the social emergency services last year. Recently, the murder of seven-year-old Atina Aslani from Parsabad Moghan in Ardabil province and the publication of several reports on child abuse have increased attention to this issue alongside the topic of sexual abuse of children. The head of the social emergency services previously announced on Saturday, July 15, that the total number of reported child abuse cases to this organization last year through phone calls, in-person visits, and other methods was about 27,000 cases, and that approximately 2% of these reports were related to sexual abuse. Mr. Asadbeigi also mentioned in his Sunday remarks that some families conceal the sexual abuse of their children and do not report it to the social emergency services. He also stated that according to the Child Protection Bill, humiliation, intimidation, and psychological abuse of a child are considered forms of child abuse. The Child and Adolescent Rights Protection Bill has been presented to the parliament since 2012 but has not yet been approved. The Research Center of the Parliament has stated in opposition to this bill that it not only does not protect children and adolescents but also 'unintentionally' leads to 'decriminalization' of child and adolescent abuse or 'criminalization' of the children themselves.