Funeral of Hormozgani Girls on the Shoulders of the City

The newspaper Etemad reported on the "funeral of Hormozgani girls on the shoulders of the city" and wrote that the families of the Hormozgani schoolgirls who died in a bus accident during a trip went to the martyrs' cemetery in Bandar Abbas on Saturday evening, September 2, to bury their teenage daughters. The father of Zahra Zakeri, a student severely injured in the incident and hospitalized in Darab, told Etemad: "I wish we hadn’t sent our children. I wish I had stopped the vehicle at eleven o'clock at night and not let it move. Our children were taken to the ground and blood. With what permission do they take students on a vehicle that is not safe?" Zeynab Rahimi, a girl from Minab who was present during the bus overturning and lost her friend Fatemeh Sadeqi Nasab in the incident, also told the newspaper: "If we had known what was going to happen, we would never have boarded that bus. We all had hope and dreams for going on that trip. In the Farzanegan camp, instructors from different cities were supposed to be invited to teach us lessons, and then we would return to our city and teach those lessons to other children. Now we have to mourn the loss of our friends." The government-affiliated newspaper Iran published photos of the funeral of the Hormozgani schoolgirls and wrote: "The bitter incident of the dawn of September 1 finally connected to the evening of the 2nd, so after countless condolence messages, the bodies of seven Hormozgani girls, whose futures were destroyed, were laid to rest." This newspaper pointed out that "Motehre, Mina, Shiva, Sheida, Fatemeh, and Zahra had not yet reached 15 years old" and stated: "A public mourning was declared in Hormozgan on Saturday," adding that "after the funeral ceremony in Hormozgan, the bodies of three of the students were transferred to their hometown in Rudan County, two to Minab, and one to Hormuz Island," while "the body of one of the students from Hajjiabad was also transferred from Darab County to Hajjiabad on that Friday night and buried on Saturday in the same city." The Iran newspaper recalled that in the bus accident involving the Hormozgani schoolgirls, "seven students along with a coach and the driver died instantly, and 34 other students were placed under medical care in the hospital," noting that "the people of Bandar Abbas, of course, from the night of the incident, lit candles in the city centers to express their sympathy with the grieving families." This newspaper simultaneously reported on the "suspension of nighttime trips for students to camps" and published part of the "preliminary report of the High Commission for Road Safety" regarding this incident, stating: "Investigations show that control of the bus was lost after hitting the backpack bridge and a front tire burst, and after traveling about 100 meters, it overturned on its right side." The report indicated that "the road section was straight, and the signs and markings were appropriate, and the speed of the bus was 86 kilometers per hour. However, for various reasons (driver drowsiness or according to the driver's statements, veering off course to avoid colliding with an oncoming vehicle), the bus deviated from the main route." The Hamdeli newspaper emphasized that "the tragedy of the death of Hormozgan students has made it even more necessary to review the regulations for educational camps," warning education officials to "be cautious with the Noor Path camps." Shirzad Abdollahi in the Hamdeli report wrote: "The group of Hormozgan students sent, contrary to what some media wrote, were not academically elite students. After the dissolution of the Boy Scouts organization, its absence was felt in education, and ultimately the Pioneer (boys) and Farzanegan (girls) groups were formed almost with the same goals as scouting within the student organization in the Ministry of Education." The Hamdeli report noted that "from October to March each year, about one million secondary school students are sent to operational areas in the south and west of the country to earn practical grades in the defensive preparedness course (8 out of 20 points)." It stated: "If the issue in the Bandar Abbas camp is about the diversity of instructions, in the case of Noor Path, part of the Ministry of Education's authority has been delegated to another institution. Education officials claim that participation in Noor Path camps is voluntary, but the reality is different," and that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government on November 7, 2012, passed a regulation that transferred part of the Ministry of Education's authority regarding defensive education and its location to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Hamdeli writer emphasized that "the government must clarify the status of this resolution. The Minister of Education should raise the issue in the cabinet meeting and call for the amendment of Article 7 of this resolution. He can argue that transporting and returning one million students in the cold season to war-torn areas in the south and west of the country without bloody incidents is impossible because: the country's road transport fleet is outdated, the roads in Khuzestan and Ilam provinces have limited capacity, and the distance of some northern and eastern provinces from operational areas is very far." The Shargh newspaper reported on the "latest health status of Alireza Rajaei," stating that this journalist and political activist is currently spending his days in the Amir Alam Hospital in Tehran "in conditions that visitors have described as difficult, but with a good spirit." According to this newspaper, Alireza Rajaei "has been hospitalized in Amir Alam due to right sinus cancer for several days. This cancer began during his imprisonment. After his release from prison in November 2015, diagnostic procedures were performed, and during this time he underwent four chemotherapy sessions and 35 sessions of radiotherapy. However, his illness has recurred, and last week he underwent a heavy 14-hour surgery and is currently hospitalized in the intensive care unit." Shargh emphasized that "his visitors have said that Rajaei's cancer is advanced," noting that previously his brother had mentioned about Rajaei's surgery: "The upper jaw has been completely removed, making it very difficult for him to speak and eat. It can be said that the main chewing muscle and the face and eye socket have been removed, and the eye itself has also been removed," and "for this reason, eating and speaking are impossible for him," but "his general condition is good, and he is trying to give hope to the other members of his family. Meanwhile, since Rajaei's arrest, his wife and two children have been living abroad due to various problems." This newspaper reminded that this journalist was on the list of the second Khordad movement for the sixth parliamentary elections from Tehran and was the twenty-eighth person who could enter the parliament, but at the request of the Guardian Council, 534 ballot boxes, meaning over 700,000 votes out of nearly three million total votes in Tehran, were declared invalid, thus removing him from the list of Tehran's elected representatives, and Gholamali Haddad-Adel entered the parliament instead. Shargh also noted that "until now, generally, political activists, his peers, namely national-religious figures, have visited him, but on Saturday, Abdollah Noori from among reformist activists visited him." The Shahrvand newspaper dedicated its front page to a report titled "The Pain of Gardens" about the sale of gardens in Tehran by the Mostazafan Foundation, stating: "On the tenth day of Khordad this year, officials of the Mostazafan Foundation opened envelopes that had come to the office of this institution to participate in the auction for the sale of another garden in Tehran. They found out who had to pay at least 40 billion and 107 million tomans for that garden adjacent to the Mostofi garden in the southern part of the Atisaz town of Tehran; that too in long-term installments and without interest." This newspaper emphasized that although "it is still unclear who won this auction and what will happen to this property, which has an area of 14,652 square meters, this auction rekindles the pain of the plundered gardens of Tehran, for which no institution has seriously felt responsible for their preservation." According to the Shahrvand newspaper, "in just ten years, over 4,000 hectares of Tehran's gardens have been destroyed, and some, like Peyman Hnachi, the deputy of urban planning at the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, have said that Tehran holds the record for garden destruction. Many have described the fate of Tehran's gardens as strange," and Mohammad Haqani, the former head of the environmental committee of the Tehran City Council, also stated: "Tehran's gardens are sold at low prices." This newspaper pointed out that "last Bahman, there was widespread talk about the nighttime cutting of trees in the Fereshteh neighborhood garden known as 'Green Garden,' and this Khordad, the Mostazafan Foundation put its hands on another wooded land and sold it in an auction," and noted that "in Ordibehesht of this year, it was also revealed that the Tehran municipality issued a construction permit for a tower in the Fereshteh garden (Mostazafan Foundation), and based on this, more than 227 trees of this garden were cut down," and after that, "in those same days of Ordibehesht, the Mostazafan Foundation put two other properties up for auction instead of requesting a tower-garden permit from the municipality." The Vaghaye Ettefaghieh newspaper reported in a piece titled "Delicious Mistake" that "since Saturday morning, when the ticket sales site for the football matches started selling tickets for the Iran-Syria game, a wave formed in cyberspace. Several women entered the site and, by entering their details and paying for the tickets, managed to buy tickets for the match. Some of those who bought tickets excitedly shared this news in cyberspace and informed others. It was very strange that the purchasing process was carried out without any problems." However, this newspaper noted that this joy did not last more than a few hours, and hopes turned into despair as Mohammad Hossein Hamisi, head of the security of the Football Federation, stated: "This issue is not true. There is no program for women to attend the Iran-Syria match, and we strongly deny the rumors published in this regard." Vaghaye Ettefaghieh emphasized that "these statements were the final point on a few hours of dreaming; however, Hamisi did not mention how to refund the ticket costs to those who had purchased them, but this cost was of no value compared to the despair that enveloped women regarding entering the stadium," and thus "on Wednesday, the national celebration of Iran's qualification for the World Cup will be held without the presence of women. Just that easily." Shargh also emphasized that "despite previous promises, the file of women's presence in Azadi Stadium has been closed," stating: "With the events that have occurred, it seems that the file of women's presence in Azadi Stadium to watch the match between Iran and Syria has been definitively closed, but the file of women's entry to this stadium remains open," as a friendly match with a prominent team is planned, and "it has been decided that only mothers and daughters will be allowed to enter to watch this friendly match, and this time the entry of men to watch the national team match will be prohibited." The Jahan San'at newspaper reported on the "beating of a journalist" from this newspaper by the security of the Caspian Financial Institute, stating that Amir Hossein Mir Asmaeili, a journalist from this newspaper, was arrested and beaten by security agents of this institute for taking pictures of a mother and child who were victims of financial loss. Amir Hossein Mir Asmaeili wrote in a note in this newspaper: "On Saturday, September 2, a woman about 50 years old, accompanied by her paralyzed mother, held a several-hour sit-in in front of the central building of the Caspian Institute located on Ahmad Qasir Street in Tehran." He stated: "As a social journalist and in line with my professional duties, I tried to hear this woman's pain and that of her mother, who expressed that she has 550 million tomans in the Caspian Institute and still cannot get her money back after a year," and then "while moving away from the Caspian Institute, I took several photos of the exterior of the building and this mother and child when suddenly one of the security staff of the Caspian Institute ran towards me and after hitting me in the chest, tightly grabbed my wrists and pushed me into the courtyard of the bank," and inside the institute, "about ten people attacked me and created a 'terrible and regrettable atmosphere' with character humiliation," and "ultimately, they forcibly deleted the photos taken on my mobile and allowed me to leave the building after taking a forced commitment." The journalist of the Jahan San'at newspaper wrote: "The depth of the tragedy, however, occurred when I went to the head of the local police station, who was present at the scene, and asked him to go to the police station to file my complaint, and he astonishingly said: 'I will not register the complaint, and these gentlemen did nothing wrong, and you can go to the prosecutor's office and file a complaint.'"