A working child's artificial smile
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© UNICEF Iran |
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Children shouldn't be forced to work |
By Elmira Shahandashti
Tehran, October 5, 2006 – It wasn't his dusty clothes or dirty red rag that caught my attention at the busy traffic intersection the other day. It was the window cleaner's youth. His exhausted, sun-burnt face, his overall look of innocence, flashes of his prematurely bitter smile.
Everyday, from morning to midnight, Reza, 13 years old, says he wanders Tehran's streets. All year, in all kinds of weather, he stands on the street corners all by himself. When traffic lights signal cars to stop he jumps to action, earning money for his family by cleaning car windows. He doesn't earn much money. The rag he uses to clean gets so dirty that sometimes he has to work all day just to save money to buy a new rag.
He resents the rudeness of car drivers. Don't they understand he has a family to feed? Don't they understand he'd rather be somewhere else also? What he misses most is his father, who died of cancer. He misses his fathers' warmth and the way he looked after the rest of the family.
Reza is reluctant to talk about his life. But I don't leave so he begins to trust me. He explains his life simply.
"My job is cleaning car windows but people always behave very badly. Everyday I am toasted in the heat. I try to earn a living but I rarely earn more than 2 dollars a day. I even can't afford my daily meal, neither my mother nor only sister's. My sister, Reyhaneh, is ill. If I had a caring father all this would be fine. This is my only wish. If he was here, we'd have money and Reyhaneh wouldn't get sick."
Reza goes back to work. He's too busy scrubbing dust and pollution off car windows to talk for long. He seems happy to talk to someone but when he works he wears the same weary and artificial smile. I decide to leave him alone and return the next day to ask more questions. But the next day Reza isn't there. For three days I return to the same intersection. No Reza.
