Iran: Women “Sold” Abroad

By Heshmat Alavi

Reports of Iran’s executions across the country and involvement in horrific killings in Syria, parallel to billions in embezzlement and extortion, and senior officials stashing huge wealth, have every now and then covered the news headlines. However, an atrocious phenomenon has unfortunately gone neglected: The organized smuggling and sale of Iranian women and girls abroad!

Read a few lines from the Airal website under a report titled, “Iranian women and girls smuggled to neighboring countries.”

“… head of Iran’s Reprimand Organization spoke of Iranian women and girls smuggled to neighboring countries…

“… statistically, the number of Iranian women and girls’ smuggled can be compared to the crisis of smuggled goods.

“… no serious measure is taken to control this trade.

“… such conditions have without a doubt imposed all-out sexual slavery for Iranian women and girls.”

“These women and girls are presented in coffee shops and luxury hotel restaurants in the country’s capital, recreational islands such as Kish (southern Iran) and other vacation outposts in northern Iran.”

This report intended to portray the situation as completely normal by continuously using the term “natural” and referring to examples of corruption in other countries, aiming to eliminate any shame in such smuggling. The repot ends as:

“It is natural to witness the daily escalation of this smuggling and trade.”

However, the report cites the reason behind this atrocity as:

“Unemployment, low wages, increasing addiction across the country, and most importantly, the unfortunate number of divorces… are amongst the main reasons behind women and girls being smuggled to other countries.”

Truly, what factor other than the mullahs’ regime is to blame?

The rise in unemployment is due to nearly all factories closing across Iran, bringing the country’s production lines to a near standstill.

The escalating addiction epidemic in Iran is the direct result of enormous poverty across the country.

Increasing number of divorces is rooted in rising unemployment and poverty. Iran’s women are the first victim of the enormous poverty phenomenon, forcing many to commit suicide. Iran is the Middle East record holder in women committing suicide, as this trend is the second leading cause of death in Iran.

From March to December 2013 more than 11 people committed suicide each day in Iran, according to numbers provided by the Iran Forensics Organization.

Increasing poverty is forcing many Iranians to sell kidneys and other body parts. Even children being sold on the black market is becoming a common norm.

Unemployment, drug addiction and the daily increase in executions are turning Iranian women into single parents.

The truth is living conditions have become utterly harsh and unbearable for women in Iran.

According to the Khabareg website, “Nearly 2.5 million households are run by single mothers… who can barely find jobs, most are not insured and suffer from various physical and psychological illnesses… As explained by Iran Statistics Center chief Adel Azar, only 18% of single mothers are actually able to find jobs. This means women without jobs are not insured and rely on their family and friends to make ends meet.”

The truth is the regime ruling Iran is the root and main element behind all these atrocities. However, despite all the poverty and Iranians resorting to selling their own children and/or smuggling women and girls abroad for trade, how is this regime actually spending the country’s budget?

We are all now aware how Tehran is allocating billions to support its allies and Shiite militias in the killing sprees launched in Syria, Iraq and … We are all aware of how the ruling elite are plundering the Iranian people’s God-given wealth. We are all aware of the enormous salaries enjoyed by senior Iranian officials. All this proves this regime’s sole interest is to maintain its entire entity intact.

Just one example may shed some light: Tehran has allocated $6 billion for a shrine built in memory of its founder Ruhollah Khomeini. $6 billion! God knows how many single Iranian mothers could have been supported with such a budget…

At a time when the country is knee-deep in economic crises, why has this regime suggested $13 million in next year’s budget for an institute responsible for publishing Khomeini’s writings?

Above all this reveals an undeniable and fundamental fact. The root of all these dilemmas, from smuggling women and girls, drugs and an enormous amount of goods, is in the very regime ruling the country. This is exactly why “no serious measure is taken to control this trade…”

Despite the fact Iran’s women are the target of the regime’s utmost pressures and crackdown, the Iranian opposition is led by a woman named Maryam Rajavi, pioneering a serious struggle against extremism and seeking to establish gender equality in her country.

Rajavi is President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella group of leading Iranian opposition organizations, including the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), seeking peaceful regime change in Iran. Advocating the true message of Islam, this movement believes women are the vanguard in the effort against Islamic fundamentalism.