Iran Focus: Tehran, Dec. 31 – Recent studies reveal that fourteen percent of all children in Iran are currently working so as to provide income for their families.
Many of these children are forced into illegal employment such as smuggling, selling narcotics, and prostitution and have to forgo any opportunity of studying in school. Virtually all such children are facing malnutrition and are prone to diseases due to lack of hygiene, according to the latest statistics.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Dec. 30 – The director general of Iran’s Teachers Union resigned on Tuesday after increased
pressure by the Iranian regime on teachers and educational establishments. In the general meeting of the directors of the Teachers Union attended by ten of the fifteen members of the board, Mahmoud Beheshti-Langroudi, handed in his resignation citing “personal reasons”.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Dec. 30 – Following recent protests by Iranian students in Tehran’s Water and Electricity University a member of Iran’s parliament (Majlis) called for the immediate closure of the institution and a clampdown on the protest.
Mr. Rostami, the MP from Ghoochan, said “this university must quickly be shut down”.

Iran Focus: Baghdad, Dec. 29 – The police chief in Najaf said that the commander of three terrorists arrested on Sunday in connection with a car bomb that exploded in the holy city, had extensive connections to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). He said that intelligence for when and where
to attack was given by an MOIS agent to the terrorist cells.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Dec. 29 – More than half of Iran’s hospitals have declared bankruptcy in the past four years according to the head of Medical Department of University of Gilan (northern Iranian province). Dr. Fariborz Ghanaati stated that since the government introduced a scheme four years ago to privatise
the majority of Iran’s hospitals, 350 out of the 550 hospitals throughout Iran have declared bankruptcy.