Collection of 'Visible' Addicted Women in a Neighborhood of Tehran

The cultural and social deputy of Tehran Municipality announced the initiation of a plan to collect 'visible' addicted women (those engaging in public 'immorality') in the Harandi neighborhood in southern Tehran and to keep them in addiction treatment centers. Meysam Amroodi stated on Tuesday, December 1, to the IRNA news agency that this plan was implemented following the order of the Tehran governor and the approval of the prosecutor's office. The collected women will be categorized based on marital status and age to be transferred to either Article 15 centers (self-referral addiction treatment centers) or Article 16 (Shafaq center under the Drug Control Council). He added that the Shafaq addiction treatment camp has a capacity of 400 people, and the operation to collect these women will continue until its capacity is filled. After the 'detoxification' phase, these addicts will be housed in Tehran Municipality facilities, and their 'feeding and empowerment' will continue for a period of six to nine months. Meysam Amroodi explained that the plan to collect 'visible' addicted women and homeless individuals in Tehran is part of an urban discipline initiative aimed at 'cleaning the appearance of Tehran from impurities.' The term 'visible' is used to describe those Iranian addicts who openly consume drugs or engage in 'immorality' in public places. According to the cultural and social deputy of the Tehran mayor, a group of psychiatrists, psychologists, and family education consultants will begin the treatment process for these addicts based on their categorization. Their focus will be on 'the thoughts of these addicts and their mental empowerment,' and after this phase, counseling services for these women will continue for one year. Meysam Amroodi urged Tehran citizens to report any sightings of addicted women in Tehran neighborhoods to the police and municipality emergency services and asked the families of these addicts to accept them after the implementation of this plan. He also mentioned that the collection plan for 'visible' male addicts will be implemented in the next two weeks. The Tehran Municipality and the officials executing this plan have not provided statistics on the total number of such addicts. Hossein Hashemi, the Tehran governor, stated in late November that this plan is being executed in collaboration with the Tehran Municipality and police, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation, and the Welfare Organization. The collection plan for addicted women from the Harandi neighborhood in southern Tehran comes after IRNA reported on November 22 about a gathering of some residents of this neighborhood protesting the presence of these addicts in Haghani Park and what they referred to as the assistance of 'charitable individuals' to them. According to that report, the protesters complained about the lack of 'peace and security' in this neighborhood. Previously, Hossein Sajedi-Nia, the police commander, had stated regarding the number of these addicts: 'Four years ago, in the same television programs about women who are addicts, visible addicts, and homeless, there were nearly 100 women in Tehran's parks, and the total number of visible addicts in Tehran was about five thousand. After four years, I can clearly say we have one thousand five hundred visible women addicts and over fifteen thousand male addicts.'