Simultaneous Suicide of Three Schoolgirls in Naqdeh

The local website 'Yolpress' reported the simultaneous suicide of three high school girls in Naqdeh County, resulting in the death of one of them. According to official institutions and authorities, the suicide rate in Iran is on the rise, and it has now affected children as well. Concurrently, multiple reports have emerged regarding an increase in child abuse in Iran, primarily perpetrated by parents, especially fathers. According to Yolpress, citing an 'informed source' in the region's education department, the suicide incident occurred on Saturday night, with one girl deceased. The source mentioned that the second girl is in a 'coma,' while the third girl 'backed out' at the moment of the act. The three girls, who were friends and had coordinated their suicide, used 'rice pills.' Last week, 17 students from a vocational school in the 'Yaftehabad' area of Tehran were poisoned due to inhaling gas from 'rice pills.' This substance disrupts the respiratory and cardiac systems within three to four hours, causing a painful death, and its use for suicide in Iran has been increasing. Yolpress noted that West Azerbaijan Province has a 'high rate' of student suicides, with 'two cases' reported in Urmia County and 'two more' in the counties of Makoo and Ushnaviyeh in the current year. The local website also criticized that this issue has received 'little attention from relevant authorities.' Previously, two Iranian newspapers, Roozan and Jahan San'at, warned about the 'collapse of educational and familial structures' and the rising suicide rates among Iranian students. The Roozan newspaper, in a report, implied that the suicide of 111 children in Iran between 2002 and 2004 was due to the 'humiliation' of these children in schools and criticized the Iranian educational system. The Jahan San'at newspaper also reported on the 'suicides of several students and children under 16 in various cities,' stating that some students cannot bear the 'pressures' from family and school 'all at once.' According to the report, these students engage in bizarre actions and take extreme measures like suicide because they 'do not know how to communicate their needs to their parents or teachers.' The Etemad newspaper quoted Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, the Minister of Health under President Rouhani, who warned about the 'expansion of social harms' and increasing depression after the news of the suicide of three middle-aged men and three young girls in 2016, calling for media assistance to prevent an 'epidemic of suicide.' According to statistics provided by a member of the Tehran City Council in November 2015, which only covered the years 2002 to 2004, 111 children aged 8 to 13 committed suicide in Iran. While 'humiliation' of students in schools has been cited as one of the reasons for their suicides, in February 2018, the Iranian Minister of Education officially stated that Iranian students' 'enthusiasm and interest' in school had 'declined.' Mohammad Bat'haei acknowledged that due to generational changes, schools in the country could no longer be managed with models from the 1980s.