Raha Ghanbari, a seven-year-old girl from the city of Qaemshahr in northern Iran, died on the evening of Friday, May 10, 2025, at Bouali Hospital in Sari after spending 10 days in a coma caused by drug poisoning.
Since approximately five months ago, Raha Ghanbari was secretly and gradually poisoned with methadone syrup by her stepmother in a shocking act of abuse. Raha, who had lost her biological mother earlier, was living with her father and brother at the time.
On Thursday, May 1, Raha began showing severe symptoms of poisoning. She was later diagnosed with serious complications resulting from a high dose of methadone, including brain swelling, multiple cardiac arrests, internal bleeding, and a drastic decline in consciousness, ultimately leading to a deep coma.
Reports suggest that Raha’s father initially refused to pursue legal action against his wife. However, some local sources indicate that both the father and stepmother have since been detained by judicial authorities.
In the final analysis, the root cause must be attributed to the inhuman clerical regime which is the primary origin of the complexes of this period of Iranian history. Women and girls are the prime victims of the regime’s inhuman ideology and policy.
The mullahs’ regime is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, yet it takes no action to protect or ensure the rights and lives of children in Iran, particularly the rights and safety of young girls.
The lack of criminalization of child abuse and the imposition of disproportionate penalties for offenders have contributed to the spread of this phenomenon in Iran. Child abuse, especially the abuse of young girls, ranks among the most prevalent social harms in the country.
