Following the news that the school janitor of “Rahe Shohada” had sexually harassed a 12-year old Kurdish female student, hundreds of Orumiyeh citizens gathered in front of this school on Monday in protest to this incident. The involvement of riot police led to the break-up of violence.

“On Monday, a 12-year-old student living in Islamabad, Orumiyeh, told her family about her sexual harassment by the school janitor of “Rahe Shohada”. Once she was examined and the doctors confirmed that sexual harassment had happened, on Oct 23, 2017, the family and a number of relatives of the student gathered at the schoolyard and demanded the arrest of school janitor. With the massive Spread of the news among the Kurdish citizens living in the town, hundreds of angry protesters joined the relatives of this young girl and broke down the school windows in addition to turning suspect’s car over.” A resident of the Shahrak Islamabad of Orumiyeh told Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).

“Following the spread of the protests, the gathering was dragged into other streets and the clash between the large number of riot forces present in the streets and the protesters continued until late night. Protesters attacked and damaged two other schools called “Dianat” and “Badbaki” in addition to Basij) Mobilization) Office of Ghods Mosque. At least 10 people suffered from arm and face fractures in the clash with the riot forces”, this eyewitness added.

“At the time of the protests, anti-riot forces filmed the participants in the protests. Since last night, dozens of Kurdish citizens including two relatives of the young girl, namely Islam and Gibreel Hatami, filmed by riot forces have been arrested in the town by security and intelligence forces.,” The eyewitness continued.

In the past two days, Iranian officials have made contradictory statements on the incident. Ourmiyeh’s governor had gone amongst the protesters yesterday and announced the arrest of the school janitor charged with sexual harassment, However, the Political-Security Deputy of the governor for Western Azerbaijan denied that there had been any sexual harassment other than some sexual misconduct.