Thursday, June 26, 2008

Student Suicides in Iran

Two Iranian students in separate incidents in Lahijan university and Sistan university, committed suicide last week as a direct result of constant harassment by the Herasat - The body of informants who spy and report in universities and government work places in the Islamic Republic.


The female student in Lahijan was being interrogated by the Herasat in their office, on the fourth floor, when she could take no more and jumped out of the window and chose to end her life instead.

The student in Sistan took an overdose after repeatedly having been informed on by the Herasat. This is the second student to have committed suicide in this university in recent months.

Farinaz, a 21 year old medical student in Shahrekord, also recently committed suicide after constantly being harassed, beaten up and detained by Herasat because her hejab observance did not meet the Herasat requirements.

Amirkabir News website, which is run by AKU students, states according to official figures, there are 4200 suicides amongst Iranian students every year.

Ahmad Nasseri, the vice chancellor of Sistan university reacted to the recent suicides by saying "We all know things need improvement, but things will not become ideal until the Hidden Imam
appears to us again."

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

4200 student suicides

That's an astounding and incredibly sad number

Azarmehr said...

Islamic Republic is an astounding and incredibly sad state, especially if you are young.

Those who support it, normally have their fun living in the West, where they wine and dine over their intellectual debates on supporting an anti-imperialist state.

Anonymous said...

In fact, just until recently suicide was the number two cause of death in the United States. Traffic accidents were first and heart disease was third (if you cared). But I'm just sayin'....

Azarmehr said...

Why are you saying it?? What is your point? Are you trying to say living in US for a young person is just as sad as for a young person living in Iran?
Does US also have a Herasat body which informs on students in the campuses and does it put so much pressure on students that they suddenly decide to run and jump out of the window while they are being nterrogated?

What is your point Barmakid?

Anonymous said...

"In fact, just until recently suicide was the number two cause of death in the United States. Traffic accidents were first and heart disease was third "

Are you referring to college age people only, in the U.S.?
I'd like a link or source of your statistics.

Anonymous said...

What this Bar Man Kid is trying to say is that things are not that bad in Mullah-Land, these sort of things happen here in UK too.

Winston said...

This is troubling news

Anonymous said...

Anon,

Yes, I meant for young people (18-24). I jumbled up my stats though, suicide was actually third. I took a class on world health and technology like 3 years ago so sorry I didn't remember the stats precisely. But here is a link: http://www.suicidology.org/associations/1045/files/2005datapgs.pdf


And Azarmehr, no I'm not trying to say what you think I'm trying to say. All I'm saying is that it's way too broad of an inference to conclude that these kids killed themselves because of Herasat or some other reason connected to the government. Suicide is a very complex thing and is definitely not about who is sadder, kids in the US or kids in Iran.

In fact, I bet that if you compared stats you would find that the U.S. and other "advanced" countries would have a higher suicide rate (as a percentage of their population) than Iran or any other developing country - including Gaza and the West Bank.

Na Kakh! Na Maschet! Faghat peeshraft-e mardomet!

be salamat,
barmakid

Anonymous said...

btw, what is up with the "bar man kid?" is that supposed to be funny? because really, it makes no sense.

Anonymous said...

Barmakid -

"I bet that if you compared stats you would find that the U.S. and other "advanced" countries would have a higher suicide rate (as a percentage of their population) than Iran or any other developing country"

1)The stats don't quite bear you out. According to the WHO, "Nearly 30% of all suicides worldwide occur in India and China." (2002)(Sri Lanka is extremely high)
(a number of the developing countries of the old Soviet Union are next - I will add)

2)No one can get stats even close to being accurate from dictatorships/totalitarian governments,(for obvious reasons) so your statement is kind of ridiculous

3) Don't make hyberbolic statements that can be refuted by stats

Bahramerad said...

When I was younger ... and use to go to my local pub for a drink or two — there was a Bar Man that we use to call him The Kid.
He had a strong verbal diarrhoea and would not stop bull-shiting on every topic of conversation and making the most stupidest comments about everything under the sun.
Some people use to lough at him at first not knowing him as well us regulars.
He really only wanted to impress the girls but they all hated him and we use to have such a lough about his exploits that never amounted to much.
In the end — he got the sack - That night we all celebrated.

Anonymous said...

If you want to oppose the current government of Iran, do it properly and not using bullshit information and reasoning.

Anyone who knows Iran and has been there recently knows that people living in Iran are generally happier than the sad ones living here (mentioning no names).

Tehran is one of the safest cities in the world, prostitution is one of the lowest in the world, and so is youth alcohol and drug taking.

I think everytime, a story comes out of Iran that for example a little girl was abused etc, some automatically link it to the government. If there is an unrest due to a demonstration then it is assumed it was against IRI. Most often, they are about bus drivers' salary or students complaining about the condition of their dormitory.

Read the news to see how many suicides there are in the UK. Walk the streets of London to see how prostitution has florished over the past few years. And see for yourself that there are demonstrations in London every week.

Suicides, prostitution etc are social problems, no doubt. But I don't think the intelligent people of the UK will blame it on the government or the police.

I think Potkin needs to engage his faculty a bit more.

Also I suggest, one considers the concept of 'cause and effect' or causality. For the olagh, I will describe it in a simple way. The weather was warm today and I felt thirsty. This does not mean that whenever I am thirsty, the weather is warm.

Bilmaz?

Anonymous said...

First of all Anon, you know nothing so stop acting like you do. If you want to come at me with a hostile tone then I can only reciprocate.

So my first statement was true and you knew it because you didn't take the time to try to refute it - suicide is a top cause of death in the U.S. and we don't have Herasat or other organizations like them that threaten college students and what not.

Furthermore, I can only assume that you googled suicide rates and found the color-coded map from 1999 or went to the WHO website and used their out-dated stats. Even if we use these as our sources (there are better sources), my statement holds - suicide rates are higher in the U.S. than the Middle East and other areas by far. North America (excluding Mexico) is second to only China and Russia (which have particular reasons for their high rates that I'm not going to take the time to elaborate on for a fool like yourself).

And when you mention that more than 30% of all suicides happen in India, there is a reason for that - they have an enormous population! That's why I said as a percentage of their populations.

But here's the crux of the matter: suicide rates are remarkably low in Iran and amongst Middle Easterners in general (maybe it has to do with culture). So to attribute the causes of these suicides solely to the IRI's malicious security/information forces it impetuous and only serves to reinforce the presuppositions of Azarmehr, Winston, Sohrab, serendip, bahramerad, and others of their ilk.

But hey, keep on chuggin, maybe you'll actually convince someone under the age of 35 of the nonsense you propagate, Azzy:)

be salamat,
barmakid

p.s. Bahramerad, your an idiot and you know it - but do your children know it yet? It's gonna be tough for them when they find out. Talk to me when you have something to say that's actually worth reading, loser.

Azarmehr said...

Here is a case of a girl being interrogated at the Herasat office in the university, AKU news site states that Herasat had been harassing her for a while, where she runs and jumps out of teh window and kills herself, directly as the result of Herasat harassment, yet this korreh khar 'Behnam(?)', and his loyal fan, 'Tudeh was a Shah's Yes Party', try to dig up some stats to prove this has nothing to do with their beloved Islamic government!!!

I suppose when the top medical student, Zahra Bani-Ya'ghoub, also killed herself in detention after God knows what happened to her in LEF detention, it should not be blamed on government.

Islamic Republic has one of the, if not the highest brain drains in the world, the youth are finding it harder and harder to find a job or afford the ever spiralling house prices, they are constantly harassed for matters which would be considered private and personal anywhere else and nothing to do with government, yet these korreh khars, claim that the youth in Iran are happy!!

The only thing is these Korreh Khars CHOOSE to live here in the West, even though they have no problem going back to their beloved Islamic Republic.

Anonymous said...

Potkin
I am glad to see that when I used the term 'olagh', you recognised yourself immediately.

I don't live in the UK and my name is not Behnam. I have nothing to do with Tudeh.

What is the problem with you? Your paalaan is too heavy or something?

Azarmehr said...

anonymous

You seem to be such an olagh that you didnt realise I wasnt talking about you. The comment about the Tudeh Party having been a Shah's Yes Party! was a comment by our friend Barmakid. Nevertheless I think you are an Olagh too.