Tehran, Iran, November 13
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
More than 1,500 runaway addict women inhabit Iran's capital city, Tehran's Chief of PoliceHossein Sajedinia has said.
Speaking to IRIB TV Channel 2 on November 12, Sajedinia said the city was also home to over 15,000 homeless addict men living in the streets.
Just four years ago, as per reports, the number of runaway addict women in Tehran was a mere 100 while homeless addict women in the city numbered 5,000.
He said the police was able to pick up almost 95 percent of these people within the last 48 hours, pointing out that action will be taken in the coming weeks following recent sessions between the police and Parliament members, representatives of the judiciary and other authorities of Tehran. Various policy measures to tackle the problem were reviewed in these sessions.
Rahmatollah Hafezi, the head of Health and Environment Commission of the Tehran City Council, had put the number of homeless women in Tehran at 3,000 in November 2014.
Reza Jahangiri, Deputy Director of the State Welfare Organization of Tehran Municipality, had said earlier that the average age of homeless women in Tehran was between 17-18 years.
Shahindokht Molaverdi, vice president of women's affairs, said in July that women accounted for one third of the country's homeless population.