Chain of teenage suicides shakes impoverished Iranian town
Authorities in the southwestern Khuzestan province have imposed a media blackout after the chain of poverty-prompted suicides involving six schoolchildren.
At least six children have died over the past months in what has been described as a “nightmarish” chain of suicides in the southwestern town of Ramhormoz in Iran’s oil-rich but impoverished Khuzestan province.
According to local outlets, the suicidal schoolchildren grew up in poverty-stricken families. The motive behind the suicides has been attributed to overall financial strains under which parents could not afford to purchase the kids smartphones, which they would need to join their school programs. The curriculum in Iran has largely become virtual amid the coronavirus pandemic that is raging at record-high levels across the country. The virus had killed over 42,000 Iranians as of Nov. 17.
