The 'Shin Abadi Girls' Protest Against Not Being Sent Abroad for Continued Medical Treatment

'Shin Abadi girls' have expressed their dissatisfaction with their treatment process, criticizing the 'unfulfilled' promises of relevant officials, including the Minister of Health, and have called for their transfer abroad for further treatment. Twelve schoolgirls who were burned five years ago due to a kerosene heater fire at a primary school in the village of Shin Abad in Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan province, shared these concerns at the ILNA news agency. The incident resulted in two deaths and 27 injuries. Sima, one of the girls, stated that 'our doctor says if we stay here, we might heal slower, but abroad, due to better facilities, we will heal faster.' She added, 'Eight months ago, Mr. Hashemi (the Minister of Health) promised us and signed a letter that equipment would be brought to the hospital for us, but this has not happened.' ILNA also published a letter dated July 21, 2017, which, according to a protocol, 'addressed to Mr. Rezaei, head of the budget department of the Ministry of Health's treatment division and head of Fatemeh Zahra Hospital, stated that equipment was to be provided to this hospital within two weeks, which has not happened to this day.' Her father mentioned that over the past five years, 'the medical treatment and facilities in the country have not been adequate for our children; if they were, the joints and fingers of the children would not have dried up.' He has requested a meeting with President Hassan Rouhani, adding that perhaps with this meeting, 'we can send the children abroad.' According to Sima's father, two years ago, 'at a burn congress, the Minister of Health had lunch with Sima and said that if necessary, each of the children would be sent abroad. Unfortunately, it was only promises.' He further noted that 'each of the children has undergone more than 150 surgeries,' and after the allocated budget of '1 billion and 360 million tomans' for the treatment of these girls was exhausted, 'the treatment is progressing slowly.' Another girl, whose name was not mentioned, stated that due to budget shortages, the equipment used in their surgeries at 'Fatemeh Zahra Hospital, which is a public-educational hospital,' lacks proper quality, causing repeated issues in their treatment process. She also mentioned the 'drying of the joints' in her hands and those of the other girls, adding, 'We cannot do anything with our hands. We study, but it is not going well; we are constantly traveling to Tehran, and the teacher does not repeat the lessons. As a result, our grades are dropping.' Asrin, another Shin Abadi girl, criticized the unfulfilled promises of the Minister of Health, questioning whether 'if it were his daughter, he would operate on her in Iran with this equipment?' Nadia's father, another girl, stated that 'because the costs for the hospital are high, surgeons do not personally perform the surgeries and leave them to assistants.' The father of another girl pointed out that 'the educational' nature of Fatemeh Zahra Hospital means that 'assistants perform the surgeries. Our children are not laboratory mice.' Other criticisms from the parents of these girls include the non-payment of the full blood money for two of the deceased girls by Iran's insurance, with only half being paid due to their gender. In December of this year, the lawyer of the 'Shin Abadi' girls 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, demanding full respect for their citizenship rights. Hussein Ahmadinejad, on the fifth anniversary of the incident, wrote to Rouhani that 'despite the promises made, half of the blood money' for Saria Rasoulzadeh and Sirin Yeganeh, two deceased students, has not 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 Shin Abadi girls will continue for another 15 years, and they and their parents must endure the hardship of traveling to Tehran and undergoing multiple surgeries, their rights have not been paid. He added, 'In my opinion, citizenship rights will only be realized when the rights of these oppressed girls are fully paid.' Shortly after this incident, Rasoul Khazari, a representative of Piranshahr in the parliament, stated that according to the government-approved protocol, all costs related to plastic surgery, life insurance, and blood money for the Shin Abadi and Doroodzan students are the responsibility of the government. The Arman newspaper also reported that 'three of the fire victims at Shin Abad primary school had their fingers amputated' and noted that 'the seriously ill students are still in the hospital,' but 'the transfer of some of the victims for continued treatment was deemed unnecessary.'