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| National Organization for Civil Registration of Iran |
In the city of Maku in Iranian Azerbaijan, a parent is unable to obtain an ID card for their child named Almila.
According to reports circulating on social media, Iran's Civil Registry Office in Maku has refused to issue an ID card for the Azerbaijani parent's child.
The child, living in Maku, located in the northern part of Iran's West Azerbaijan province, has been denied an ID card under the name Almila. Despite being born five months ago, Almila has yet to receive an ID card. As a result, the child has been deprived of many social services.
Human rights organization HRA, citing an informed source, reported that "the failure to register the child's identity has led to the denial of medical services."
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest among Azerbaijani families in Iran to give their children Turkish names. According to officials, Turkish names are among the most popular names in Iran's Azerbaijani regions.
However, parents face challenges when choosing Turkish names due to issues such as ensuring that Turkish names adhere to the Persian language's orthography and dealing with the limited list of approved names by Iran's Civil Registry Office.
News of Azerbaijani children being denied ID cards due to their Turkish names appears in only a fraction of the media.
Human rights defenders in the region argue that the Islamic Republic’s policy of restricting Turkish names in Iranian Azerbaijan violates human rights, as international conventions guarantee children the right to have their identities registered from birth and to access social services.
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
İran Azərbaycanında Almila adlı uşağa şəxsiyyət vəsiqəsi verilmir