TIG Post

Tag: school girls

  • Guinea: Capsized canoe claims lives of 7 school girls

    Guinea: Capsized canoe claims lives of 7 school girls

    A heartbreaking incident unfolded near the town of Kouroussa in Upper Guinea, where a group of young schoolgirls faced a fateful journey to take their college entrance exams.

    In a devastating turn of events, their hopes and dreams were tragically cut short as their canoe capsized on the Niger River.

    Officials, including a minister and a relative of one of the victims, have confirmed that at least seven precious lives have been lost in this harrowing accident.

    This devastating loss has sent shockwaves through the community, leaving a deep sense of grief as the nation mourns the untimely demise of these aspiring students.

    “We are struck by this bad news of the shipwreck of seven students who have lost their lives,” the Minister of Pre-university Education and Literacy, Guillaume Hawing , who is in the region for launch the first tests of the examination.

    Mamadi Kéita, a security guard, told AFP that he lost his half-sister in this drowning. “She was leaving with her comrades for the other side of the Niger River to face the first tests of their 7th-year entrance exam which begins on Monday”.

    “They embarked in an overloaded canoe which capsized under the weight of passengers and goods”, he added in tears on the telephone. “All the girls came from Kourala district and were going to Balato sub-prefecture, 40 km from Kouroussa prefecture,” he said.

    Another local source assured AFP anonymously that the toll was only provisional and could be heavier. The operations to find bodies continue Sunday evening.

  • Iranian schoolgirls protest against the government by taking off their hijabs

    In an unprecedented display of support for the protests rocking the nation, Iranian schoolgirls have been yelling against clerical authorities and waving their hijabs in the air.

    Videos verified by the BBC showed demonstrations inside schoolyards and on the streets of several cities.

    They echoed the wider unrest sparked by the death last month of a woman who was detained for breaking the hijab law.

    In Karaj, girls reportedly forced an education official out of their school.

    Footage posted on social media on Monday showed them shouting “shame on you” and throwing what appear to be empty water bottles at the man until he retreats through a gate.

    In another video from Karaj, which is just to the west of the capital Tehran, students are heard shouting: “If we don’t unite, they will kill us one by one.”

    In the southern city of Shiraz on Monday, dozens of schoolgirls blocked traffic on the main road while waving their headscarves in the air and shouting “death to the dictator” – a reference to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters.

    Further protests by schoolgirls were reported on Tuesday in Karaj, Tehran, and the north-western cities of Saqez and Sanandaj.

    A number of students were also photographed standing in their classrooms with their heads uncovered.

    Some were raising their middle fingers – an obscene gesture – at portraits of Ayatollah Khamenei and the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

    Iranian schoolgirls without headscarves raise their middle fingers towards portraits of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
    IMAGE SOURCE,TWITTER Image caption, The protests by the schoolgirls began hours after Iran’s supreme leader defended the government’s response