A few days ago, an elementary school in the city of Piranshahr, which is located in West Azerbaijan province in Iran got on fire and 45 school girls were hurt.
Hours after the incident, it was clear that the oil heater was to blame (along with the janitor and the teacher and no one else!) for the fire break out.
33 students were right in the middle of the hassle and eight of them were badly injured. Now keep in mind that we are talking about nine year old girls who would probably want a good appearance in the future, let alone wanting to live! Girls who probably walk to school in these cold days and were looking forward to the end of the first semester so they could enjoy playing in the snow.
The Minister of Education was rushed to Piranshahr to find out some of these girls need to be transferred to a better hospital with the needed equipment.
Well, so far there is nothing wrong with this picture, except the fire itself. But the situation got more interesting when Hamidreza Hajibabayi, the responsible minister, giggled after he was asked whether he was actually thinking of resignation after this. Especially when he was excepted to resign a month ago after a bus full of high school girls crashed and 26 students were killed.
However, Hajibabayi found the question so bizarre that it seemed he didn't have any choice but to answer it with an heartbreaking humour: "Should we go ahead and fire some journalists? If you people had told us earlier, we would take care of the school and this would never happen!
Soon after this, different media outlets published Hajibabayi's quote and one of them actually asked Iranian nation to help them mention some of the errors of the ministry since they seemed incapable of finding those themselves.
Did I, as a journalist, feel guilty? Was it actually our fault that these "girls of Iran" are struggling for their lives day after day, without no one taking the blame?
My answer to the above is yes.
It is our fault that the Ministry of Education has better things to do than actually doing the one thing they are responsible for.
It is our fault that when we knew winter time brings such horrific incidents every single year, we didn't take some time to inform the Ministry that our children's' lives is in danger.
It does't matter whether we have the power to get their attention or encourage them to make a change, it is our fault that we lack such power.
And finally, it is our fault that we have never inform the minister of the true meaning of "responsibility". If we were better role models and did our job better, in a responsible way, he would finally understand what it means to step up and be a man.
We have failed you girls, and because of that, I am sorry.
