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| Dr. Ali Gharajehlou |
Despite the Islamic Republic having ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for Children, and having the International Children's Day officially listed on its calendar, it attempts to divert public opinion by organizing propaganda and staged events on this day, thereby shirking its responsibilities towards the children of Iran.
On International Children's Day in Iran, some of the serious issues children face, including forced child labor, child abuse... whether by certain government-affiliated bodies or by child protection organizations, are discussed without yielding tangible results. Meanwhile, what is intentionally and maliciously overlooked is the discrimination against children from non-Persian ethnic groups in Iran. These blatant and inhumane discriminations violate the most important articles of the Convention and the Declaration on the Rights of the Child.
Iranian kindergartens are among the last targets of the homogenization (assimilation) policies of Persian chauvinism that have emerged under the Islamic Republic.
Recently, according to directives issued by the Welfare Organization and the Ministry of Education to the managers of kindergartens and schools, these centers have been instructed to speak only in Persian and to teach in Persian! These directives also require the officials to refrain from speaking in any non-Persian languages (the children’s mother tongue). Furthermore, teachers are advised to instruct children to speak in Persian even with their parents at home!
These inhumane discriminations are imposed on innocent children, while Article 30 (Protection of Minorities) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasizes that:
"Children belonging to ethnic, religious, or linguistic minorities in countries where such minorities exist have the right to use their language, culture, and religion, either collectively or individually, with their families or communities."
The discriminatory policies of the Islamic Republic against non-Persian children also conflict with the Declaration on the Rights of the Child. This declaration stresses that:
"The national, religious, ethical, cultural affiliations of parents, guardians, and caregivers, as well as the prevailing ideology of the society, shall not be an obstacle to children’s enjoyment of the rights outlined in this declaration."
The inhuman and hateful policies of the Islamic Republic against non-Persian children, which aim to Persianize them, do not stop there but extend to other aspects of their rights. For example:
The Islamic Republic intentionally uses non-Persian dialects, especially Turkish, for dubbing negative, peripheral, and criminal characters in children's cartoons and films (whether done by government institutions or licensed agencies).
CDs containing historical and educational animations produced by the Ministry of Education's Educational Technology Office grotesquely portray Turks and Arabs as ignorant, savage, and uncultured, while depicting Persians as pure, civilized, and cultured.
These CDs, despite repeated protests from the public, are repeatedly broadcast by the Islamic Republic's national TV and radio as historical stories for students.
The execution of such racist policies amounts to the imposition of apartheid and a blatant violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Meanwhile, the Convention obliges governments to refrain from any form of ethnic, religious, or racial discrimination against their children. The Convention on the Rights of the Child states:
Article 29 (Educational Goals)
- The governments of the States Parties recognize that education should:
(c) "Promote respect for the child's parents, their cultural identity, language, and values, and enhance the child’s understanding of other cultures."
(d) "Prepare the child for life in a free society, based on understanding, peace, tolerance, and respect for others, equality between men and women, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national, and religious groups."
With these stipulations, if Persian chauvinism and Aryan nationalism had been promoted covertly and under the surface by the rulers of Iran (both Pahlavi and Islamic), now these policies are being implemented openly. The Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, a body of the Islamic Republic, is at the forefront of openly promoting Persian chauvinism and Aryan nationalism.
Today, the language, culture, and national identity of Iran's non-Persian nations have become pawns in the hands of the ideological desires and racist ambitions of the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution. A council where many of the regime's leaders hold membership.
The Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, with its primary goal of denying the existence and identity of non-Persian nations, theorizing and establishing the concept of a unitarily Persian Iran, has passed several resolutions in this regard. These resolutions have entered Iranian culture through textbooks and play a destructive role in the brainwashing of Iran's youth.
One of these resolutions forbids naming children with non-Persian and non-Islamic names. The council has provided a list of permissible names in the form of a booklet to the Iranian Civil Registration Office. Even Iranian embassies abroad are required to register Iranian children born outside of Iran according to this list.
These resolutions not only concern naming children but also extend to the naming of cities, streets, places, public institutions, shops, and workplaces.
"Regulations for Naming Cities, Streets, Places, and Public Institutions"
This regulation, passed on 9th June 1996 by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, stipulates:
Article 1, Clause 5
"To maintain and strengthen the political and cultural unity of the country and preserve national identity, names must be in Persian only."
Article 2, Clause 1
The naming regulations cover the following:
"Cities, towns, ports, rivers, islands, streets, markets, alleys, schools, kindergartens, research institutions, scientific and cultural assemblies, public halls, hospitals, health centers, cinemas, entertainment centers, parks and gardens, squares, terminals, airports, railway stations, refineries, factories, banks, sports clubs, shops, companies, and commercial centers."
The resolutions passed by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution are in fact a continuation and complement to the policies of the first Pahlavi Cultural Academy (22nd May 1935 to 5th August 1970), during which many cultural, urban, and geographical places and terms in Iran were altered and distorted to serve the racist and chauvinistic goals of Reza Shah.
Why Has the Islamic Republic Adopted Explicit Anti-National and Persian-Centric Racist Policies of the Pahlavi Era?
The Islamic Republic's shift towards overt national apartheid policies against Iran's non-Persian nations has multiple reasons.
The most important factor is the rise of the national identity struggles of non-Persian ethnic groups in Iran, transforming their everyday protests into widespread uprisings. Recent incidents in Khuzestan, Kurdistan, Sistan-Baluchestan, and now Turkmen Sahra are prime examples of this reality.
Among these groups, particularly the gradual shift of Azerbaijani Turks across Iran—the largest ethnic group in Iran, with a long history of political activism—towards defending their linguistic, cultural, and national identity has deeply alarmed the Islamic Republic. This movement, which is not led from above by intellectuals and elites but is growing from below, is encompassing intellectuals and activists of all political and ideological stripes, uniting them with the fate of their people.
The policymakers of the Islamic Republic believe that by eliminating their language, culture, and identity, they can create a homogeneous, unitary society according to their own delusional, ideological vision. They feel the ground shaking beneath them, so they are mobilizing all their legal and illegal capacities to implement their toxic fantasies.
As the national consciousness of Iran's non-Persian ethnic groups grows, and various sectors of society join in the struggle against the widespread oppression they face, the foundations of the Persian-centric "Iranian nation" are becoming increasingly untenable.
The Islamic Republic's reaction to this situation, along with the shameful behavior of some self-proclaimed advocates of democracy and human rights in Iran towards these struggles, is a clear indication of their surprise. Hence, the illegal and unjust directives—each representing a crime against non-Persian children—are being implemented alongside a coordinated propaganda attack by Persian chauvinist groups and the Islamic Republic against the cultural, social, and economic life of Iran's ethnic groups, particularly the Turks and Arabs.
In this context, defending the rights of children in Iran, particularly the rights of non-Persian children, is a duty for every freedom-loving and justice-seeking individual. Any hesitation in defending the human rights of these children aligns with the apartheid policies of the Islamic Republic and against the violated rights of the children.