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| Atina Aslani |
Recently, the murder of a 7-year-old girl named Atina Aslani by a man in the Mugan region of Iranian Azerbaijan caused widespread reactions in the region and the media. In an interview with Voice of America, women’s studies expert Sevil Suleymani emphasized that there is no education on sexual abuse against women and children in Iranian society.
“The reason for this is that Mugan is a traditional region. At the same time, because it is small, people know each other. The fact that such an event happened in this region triggered a strong reaction. The reactions were serious,” she says.
Evaluating the reactions of social media users, the feminist activist points out that these reactions mostly focus on punishing the perpetrator rather than addressing the factors that lead to such crimes:
“The reactions are mostly about how this tragic crime was committed against a 7-year-old child. There were also reactions calling for the execution of the perpetrator. However, even among cultural activists, no one says that this is an incident within a system of violence, and Atina is one of its victims. They don’t see it this way. They rarely question how much education has been provided in Iran on this issue. How much attention does Iran's education and training system give to preventing sexual abuse or assault against children?”
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| Sevil Suleymani |
Sevil Suleymani argues that both the education system and the environment in general must focus on educating children. Efforts to raise awareness should take place not only in public sectors but also within families.
“Our society does not teach what violence is. We don’t fully understand this issue. If you ask a woman what violence is, she’ll say it’s a punch, a kick, or bleeding from the mouth. She doesn’t understand other forms of violence. We don’t teach children not to go to strangers, not to talk to them, that no one can touch their clothes…”
A native of the Mugan region, the activist also points to some positive aspects in the reactions shown.
“For example, the #SilentVictims hashtag emerged. It was a great initiative. People were sharing their childhood experiences, and how their families had asked them to stay silent. It was enlightening. It showed that in Iran, women and children are expected to remain silent in cases of violence,” she adds.
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Sevil Süleymani: İranda uşaqlar cinsi istismara qarşı maarifləndirilmir