They get up early in the morning and hit the streets, selling flowers, candy, and shining shoes. The streets are their home, not the schoolyard. They have no access to healthcare and education. They suffer from harsh weather, starvation, and police repression. They are Iran's street children struggling to survive in the cities of Tehran, Isfahan, Mashad, and Shiraz. These young boys and girls, ranging from the ages of 10 to 14, are forced to live out on the streets, some in garbage collection centers, some in rug factories, and others trapped in the violent and oppressive sex industry.
These children never had a normal childhood. They are the innocent victims of poverty, parental drug addiction, or parental divorce. Many of them become scavengers, crossing the border from Afghanistan, lured into the false promise of making money, and end up dying at a very young age, buried beneath the trash at garbage separation centers. The owners of the garbage separation centers exploit the vulnerable child laborers, sending them to the streets to collect recyclable items from trash cans and paying them very little in return.
The work is so hard that they suffer from extreme pain in their backs and joints from lifting huge bags of trash around all day. At the end of the day, they fall asleep among the filthy trash exhausted from the harsh labor. The unsanitary conditions take an immense toll on the children. Many of them don't live beyond the age of 10, dying from bronchitis, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and even AIDS. The horrifying reality for these children is not only dying at a very young age but also having a trash bin become their final grave marker.
Children are not only victims of the curse of poverty living under the harsh rule of rich Mullahs in Iran, but they also suffer from the abuse and violence of forced marriages. More than 1,077,000 female child marriages have been registered in Iran in the last eight years, including 13,500 girls under the age of 13. The Statistical Center of Iran reported that 27,488 girls under the age of 15 were married in Iran between December 2021 and November 2022. Since 2022, statistics have conveniently vanished from record keeping and no one knows exactly now how many young girls have been married off to spouses twice their age!
Before the 1979 revolution, women were required to be at least eighteen years of age to be married. When the Islamic Republic came into power in 1981, that law was abolished, setting the legal age of marriage to thirteen. In 2000, the age was dropped to nine years of age if the child's male guardian gave consent.
Playing with dolls and going to the playground was no longer a reality for young Iranian girls. The new reality was becoming a young bride and struggling to psychologically adjust to being the wife of a forty-year-old man!
Lily Meschi understands this harsh reality. She was the victim of an arranged marriage at the age of 18. For fourteen years she suffered in an abusive relationship. At that time, it seemed normal because most of her peers, cousins, and neighbors lived in similar situations. Fortunately, Lily found her hope and freedom in Christ and now is busily counseling other Iranian women through Iran Alive Ministries.
Commenting on the legal marriage age in Iran, Lily declares, "I can't even fathom what a nine-year-old psychologically goes through when they're given in marriage at that early age."
Lily isolated herself from others and lived in fear for fourteen long years. She understands the trauma suffered by these child brides.
"One of the things that keeps the victim in isolation is the fear of shame. We don't want others to see the shame that we carry."
Child marriage in Iran becomes an endless cycle of systematic violence and abuse against these innocent young brides.
Mona was just 17 when she was forced to marry her cousin, who was 15 years older than her. Suffering from endless abuse and finding no solace in the legal system, she fled to Turkey and fell prey to human traffickers. Coerced to return to Iran with false assurances of protection, Mona was brutally murdered by her husband in February 2022 in an apparent honor killing. To celebrate his so-called, " honor crime," he beheaded her and paraded her severed head through the streets for everyone to see!
At the tender age of thirteen, Maryam was the victim of a forced marriage. Then a malicious rumor of her sending a nude picture to a married man circulated in the community. Her family subjected her to unimaginable torture, shaving her hair, and then hanging her by a rope.
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In a country rich in oil profits, Iran turns a blind eye to suffering children. They instead spend their money on exporting terrorism all over the world through Hezbollah and Hamas. While children are expendable to the government, and the parliament fails to promote laws to alleviate their suffering, children are very precious to Jesus.
Jesus puts a high value on the lives of all children. They are very precious to him.
Jesus invites children to come and find hope and protection in Him. He declares, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." (Matthew 19:14)
Nine years ago, I published an eye-opening story about what life is like for Iranian street children. It puts a face on them and gives us a glimpse into their daily struggles. It was written in July of 2015 right after Obama signed a nuclear deal with Iran and sent them sanction relief money. It is entitled, "The Diary of an Iranian Street Child."
"Every person in the world has their own story to tell. My story is the story of poverty."
Most children in Iran are very poor, so poor that we have to abandon going to school and instead work in the streets, in both rainy and cold weather, wandering among cars, selling flowers and snacks.
"Sir would you like to buy these flowers? " "Do you need some chewing gum?"
"These Quran verses will solve the problems of your life!
From morning until evening, exhausted and hungry, we plead with people to buy our flowers or gum. Unlike others, we love the traffic lights! We have to jump in front of people's cars, and quickly clean their windshields. Some people ignore us, some treat us like animals, and fortunately, a few give us some money. We are also known as "rented kids," who are dropped off in the morning by a minibus at specific locations to work the streets and sell our merchandise. At the end of the day, our employer collects our earnings, and maybe if we're lucky he will reward us with a few Tomans.
Who's fault is it, if our parents cannot make money, because they are in prison or addicted to drugs or disabled?
Most of our mothers, if they cannot earn money, will sell their kidneys to survive for another month. Most of us cannot go to school. We are bullied, offended, abused, raped, or used by our employers to carry drugs. Because of that, most of us end up becoming addicts.
We are suffering, dying, and crying out in desperation, while billions of dollars which should be ours, instead are being transferred into foreign bank accounts by Mullahs and government officials. The terrorists in Syria and Lebanon receive their illegal portion of the money to buy weapons, while we are starving and dying in the streets.Millions of dollars are used to decorate the Mausoleum of Khomeini and enhance the gold dome and the carpets inside. The Shi'a Imam's tombs are beautiful, bright, and polished and we have to pay for them with our lives in darkness and despair.We are living in hell while the Mullahs are living the lifestyles of Kings and emperors. I have a question for the Supreme Leader, Mr. Khamenei, what will you do with the money you received from the nuclear deal? Will you help us so that we don't have to wander the streets day and night and sell our bodies and souls to stay alive?
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Street children and child brides. The suffering is unimaginable and this injustice will continue as long as the Islamic Republic of Iran is in control. Our response to this tragedy is to be their voice, tell their stories, and pray for the day when their suffering will finally come to an end.
"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; defend the rights of those who have nothing. Speak up and judge fairly, and defend the rights of the poor and needy."
(Proverbs 31:8-9)
