Protest Gathering of Injured Girls from Shinabad in Front of the Presidential Institution

The injured girls from Shinabad gathered in a protest against the lack of response from officials regarding their treatment. Twelve schoolgirls were burned six years ago due to a kerosene heater fire at a primary school in the village of Shinabad, Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan province, resulting in two deaths and 27 injuries. According to ILNA news agency, this gathering took place on Wednesday (July 18) in protest of the 'unfulfilled' request for a meeting with the Ministers of Education and Health. Hossein Ahmadi-Niaz, the lawyer for the injured girls, stated that they 'conducted this protest to follow up on their treatment and to assert their rights due to the lack of response from officials.' As reported by Ahmadi-Niaz, they have been 'waiting in Tehran for a week' to meet with the Ministers of Education and Health but have been unsuccessful. This is not the first time the Shinabad girls have criticized officials for not fulfilling their promises regarding their treatment. In March 2018, they also expressed dissatisfaction with their treatment process and criticized the 'unfulfilled' promises of officials, including the Minister of Health, and requested to be sent abroad for further treatment. On May 7 of this year, their lawyer announced a renewed lawsuit to pursue the costs of treatment for his clients. Ahmadi-Niaz mentioned that he has filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Education, demanding compensation for damages incurred over the past six years. In December 2017, he wrote an open letter to Hassan Rouhani, criticizing the discrimination in the payment of blood money to the students of this school due to their gender and called for the full respect of their citizenship rights. On the fifth anniversary of the incident, he wrote to Rouhani that 'despite the promises made, half of the blood money' for Saria Rasoulzadeh and Sirin Yeganeh, the two deceased students, has not yet been paid. He added that in Iran, 'gender is still the basis for blood money' and 'this inequality has led to the violation of the rights of these girls and thousands of other girls in Iran.' According to this lawyer, while the treatment process for the Shinabad girls will continue for another 15 years, they and their parents must endure the hardship of traveling to Tehran and undergoing multiple surgeries, yet their rights have not been fulfilled. He further stated: 'In my opinion, citizenship rights will only be realized when the rights of these oppressed girls are fully deposited and paid.' The rights of the injured Shinabad girls have still not been fully compensated after six years, despite a statement shortly after the incident by Rasoul Khazari, a representative from Piranshahr in Parliament, claiming that according to a government-approved protocol, all costs related to plastic surgery, life insurance, and blood money for the Shinabad and Doroudzan students are the responsibility of the government.