Iranian doctor accused of abusing girls, women being protected by government: Rights group
A source said that, in one village alone, the doctor had assaulted 22 women and girls who had visited his office as patients.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iranian authorities are reportedly protecting a family doctor whom locals in the Kurdistan Province of Iran have accused of sexually assaulting potentially dozens of young girls and women, a rights group claimed on Wednesday.
Locals in the Iranian Kurdish (Rojhilati) villages of the Kurdistan Province’s Divandarreh (Diwandara) District told Iranian Kurdish rights group Hengaw that they have long warned the local health directorate of abuses committed by a particular doctor, stating they would take matters into their own hands should the government fail to address the allegations.
“The people of the villages of Ibrahim-Awa, Kani Sifeed, and Sharif-Awa have complained to the authorities multiple times about the abuse and harassment of women by the doctor,” began a resident of one of the villages.
The directorate confirmed they had received reports of the doctor’s behavior and a small camera was planted in his room. The doctor, however, was able to escape with his family to avoid facing charges, claimed the health directorate.
Hengaw’s source, from his perspective, tells another story.
“The concerned authorities did not take any action to resolve the issue, and after they learned of our plan to take matters into our own hands, the doctor was secretly given immunity and transferred back to his hometown in Qaem Shahr,” a city which lies in the Persian part of Iran, in Mazandaran Province.
Without specifying their ages, the source said that, in the village of Ibrahim-Awa alone, the doctor had assaulted 22 women and girls who visited his office as patients.
Editing by Nadia Riva