Hamid Melikoglu, Voice of America, September 24, 2020
In the city of Ardabil in Iranian Azerbaijan, national activists wrote slogans on city walls to protest against the denial of identity cards for a child named "Ayıl" due to his Turkish name.
According to a report by Voice of America, on September 22, civil activists in the city of Ardabil held widespread peaceful protests in the form of graffiti against the policy that bans giving Turkish names to children.
The name "Ayıl" written on the walls was taken from a protest hashtag that became a trend on social media after a video shared by Ardabil-based artist and civil activist Sajad Jolani.
The slogans written on the walls called for an end to racism in Iran and demanded the protection of children's rights.
Azerbaijani artist Sajad Jolani shared a video on Instagram from the Ardabil Civil Registration Department, revealing that despite two months of efforts, his child was denied an identity card due to their Turkish name.
Officials from the Ardabil Civil Registration Department had told the national activist, "It has been verbally announced that the name requested in Tehran has not been approved, and until an official notification is sent to the child's family, they should consider choosing and changing another name."
Sajad Jolani believes that the Iranian government has not allowed the name "Ayıl" for his daughter both because it is in Turkish and because of its meaning.
He stated that he would not give up on this natural right under any circumstances.
In recent weeks, the human rights organization Ark Society sent a video of Sajad Jolani with English subtitles to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and UNICEF, informing them that the Turkish people in Iran are consistently subjected to degrading treatment by the Iranian government.
In Iran, identity cards are only issued for names that appear on a list presented by the government to Registration Departments, and this is not the first time that the Iranian Civil Registration Department has opposed giving Turkish names to children.
According to Article 7 of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child has the right to a name and identity card from the moment they are born.
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Ərdəbildə divarlara türkcə adı olan uşağa şəxsiyyət vəsiqəsi verilmədiyi üçün etiraz şüarları yazılıb