Summary Observation of the Conditions of Childern in the Islamic Republic of Iran

-No suffering is greater than the suffering of a child who for the first time tastes the bitterness of injustice and oppression. Rolan Romin

-A curse that emerges from the inner of a silent child is more effective than the fury of the strongest man. Browing

-A child is more in need of symbols and role-models than criticism and discouragement. Zhober

            Children are referred to the lowest strata of society that due to their physical and mental characteristics are not in a condition able to defend their rights and freedom.  It becomes the responsibility of society, the government and the organizations that recognize the rights and needs of children, and are in continious attempt to make their dreams reality, to stand up for them.   It is due to this particularity of the world of children and notably their necessity for specific support that many declarations, conventions and various regulations have been enacted for the support and defence of children.  It is worthwhile to say that most of these agreements have not yet been put into practice in most countries; however, a series of rules and declarations as:

1-      Geneva Convention on Children’s Rights (1924),

2-      United Nations (UN) General Assembly Convention for the Defence of Children’s Rights (20 November 1959),

3-      Universal Human Rights Declaration, clause 2 of Article 25 and many other international and UN ratified documents,

are active for the benefit of children.  While this implies that the cultural essence of a child is freedom, it is also an indication that there exists an international commitment to defend the demands of this segment of society.  In this article, we will have a summary observation over a few disturbing life condition cases of children in Iran under the ruling of the regime of Islamic Republic.

Bilingual Children

            Article 30 (support for minorities) of the UN Declaration on Children about children belonging to minorities says, “Children belonging to ethnic and religious or linguistic minorities in these countries that these minorities live, have the right along their community or individually to use and practice their language, culture and religion.”(1) But, the truth is that in multi-ethnic Iran, not only any attention has been paid to the education of children in their mother tongue, but also emphasis on education in Persian language “as a building bloc for national unity all over the country” (2) has practically started the extinction of other languages among the official language of the country, and this practice still continues.  This is in a time that the difference between the native language of the children in Iran and problems related to the learning of the country’s official language for students who learn another language in their childhood is a serious challenge; therefore, attention to the complexity of education and training is an undeniable necessity.

Registering Children’s Names

            In the Registration Law, ratified in 1946, and supposedly amended in 1984, there exists various criterias for registration that deserves some analysis.  According to the first amendment of the article 20 of the Name Registration Rule of the Islamic Republic: “Choosing names that are insulting to the sacreds of Islam, and also choosing family names and names that are mordant and are contrary to the sex of a child are forbidden.”(3)  The implementation of such a clause in the country’s Registration Law is so clear that any analysis or explanation is unnecessary.  No doubt, the ratification of these kind of interventionary laws in registering children’s names and obstinate intervention in family affairs is a sign of injustice and cruelty against children.

            The regime has gone to the point that it has published a handbook containing Islamic names that the registering authorities have to force the parents to choose their kids’ names from, and if the names are in contrary to the outlined names, the administrators will cancel the registration based on related rules and regulations and prevent the documentation of them.  The existance of bi-name children in Iranian Kurdistan and among other oppressed minorities of our country is a good reason for the claim that parents are not free in naming their own children.

Sexual Segregation

The Islamic government of Iran is one of the most outstanding promoters of the most tragic methods of sexual segregation in schools and other educational centres in Iran.  Sexual segregation has been officially approved in the educational regulations of the regime.  The truth is that the imposition of inappropriate conduct patterns with sexual and age condition of children and youngsters in wearing clothes, hair adornment, boys and girls relationship in educational centres, and as well as not considering their social and psychological growth, is dominant in the thinking of the planners of this populace segment of society.  Viewing girls from a second class sex perspective and choosing sexual patterns in schoolbooks and educational policies has brought about a destructive impact on the mentality of both sexes.  It is the endorsement of such backwarded policies that according to statistics: “Women can not pursue their educational studies in 55 percent of mathematics and technical studies, 35.26 percent of social studies, 23.35 percent of sciences and 5.26 percent of arts, meaning that they are legally prevented to do so.” (4)

Taking Barbaric Sexual Advantage of Children

            The regulation of the country’s rulers, in contrary to the recognized international rules, has reduced the girls’ marriage age from 18 to 9, which is a kind of sexual exploitation.  Little girls that are sold to men as spouses, and the temporary engagement of young girls from poor families of society, is a glimpse of such an officially recognized crime in regards to children.  Despite the sexual harassment of children, in the rules of Islamic Republic of Iran, the offence of being a victim is harsher than the offence of being a harasser.

Child Labour

            In the official state statistics in Iran, children employed over 10 years of age are listed in the employment statistics along with seniors.  Although there is not an accurate figure of children employed, Iranian children comprise a huge segment of the working population in factories, municipal centres, shopping centres, and etc… that are not in any way eligible for guaranteed rights such as unemployment insurance in the work place.  “Employers also keep a specific percentage of the children’s income for themselves – aside from a share that they keep for their protection against the senior workers, municipal officers and police – and at the end what is left over will be directed to feed their hungry stomachs.” (5)  The entering of these young kids into the Iranian labour market has resulted in extreme hardship for this segment of the population that not only any institution or organization has granted any support or accepted responsibility, but also in this disruptive labour market of Iran, children have become faded roses who will have little impact in the construction of the future of their native land.

Street Children

            One of the difficulties of these children entering the labour market is the increasing shelterless, street children that the mafia gangs are controlling their daily life in an unprecedented way.  According to a series of figures, “40 percent of these children have been addictive to narcotics, 35 percent of them have experienced home run-aways, and 82 percent have experienced failure and dropout in their study period.” (6)  In a report gathered by UNICEF in 1998 on street children in the city of Tehran, states that one of the most dangerous problems threatening the future life of these street kids is falling into the traps of these mentioned organized criminals who take physical and sexual advantage of these children by forcing them into theft and selling narcotics to fulfil their abominative goals.

References:

1)      The agreement was ratified by the UN General Assembly in 20 November 1989 that was also passed in the regime’s Islamic parliament.

2)      The book: Answer to History written by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.  In page 2 of the book is quoted “our attempt was based on this that along preserving the regional dialects, expand the Persian language more and more as a symbol and a toll of national unity all over the country”.

3)      Weekly Sirwan, No 14.

4)      The book: Zanan Dar Bazare Kare Iran, written by Mehrangiz Kar, second edition 2000.

5)      Publication Kar, No. 208.

6)      Publication Iran Times, No¨1518.

Article translated from KURDISTAN, Organ of the Central Committee of PDKI