According to information obtained by Etemad News, a reliable source reported severe mistreatment of children in an orphanage facility operated by clergy, under the supervision of the State Welfare Organization of Iran. A former trainer disclosed that in one instance, this 7 seven year olds hands and feet were deliberately burned using a clothing iron, followed by confinement in a bathroom located in an old building infested with cockroaches. Additionally, the child’s sustenance was limited to dry bread and water just for bedwetting. Disturbingly, 24 children who have resided in the orphanage for the past eight years have been subjected to similar neglect and mistreatment. Multiple sources have corroborated and verified these accounts of abuse.
Another source told the paper that the physical and psychological abuse inflicted by one of the female managers at the Mehr Mandagh chain charity organization left a child so profoundly traumatized that they expressed a desire to take their own life.
Following the publication of a distressing account in an Iranian daily regarding the traumatic experiences of numerous children in a state-operated orphanage overseen by clerics, the authorities have exerted pressure on the newspaper to retract the article.