March 8, 2023
An Azerbaijani Turkish child in Tabriz, Volkan Azarmirad, remained without a birth certificate for more than 40 days because Iranian civil registration authorities objected to his Turkish name.
Volkan Azarmirad was born on January 26, 2023. More than 40 days after his birth, he had still not received identification documents and, as a result, had been deprived of access to certain medical and social services.
Iran’s National Organization for Civil Registration maintains a list of approved names and expects parents to choose their children’s names from that system. When parents select a name outside the approved list, the proposed name may be referred to the organization’s Name Committee for review. If the committee does not approve it, the name cannot be officially registered.
Critics argue that political, religious, and cultural restrictions within the approved-name system prevent some citizens from giving their children names reflecting their ethnic, religious, or cultural identities.
The refusal to issue birth certificates for children bearing names selected by their parents is not unprecedented. In 2020, the case of an Ardabil child named Ayıl attracted widespread attention after authorities refused to register his name. A video showing Ayıl’s father protesting outside the city’s civil registration office helped launch what became known as the “Ayıl Campaign.”
As the campaign spread on social media, other Azerbaijani families who had faced similar restrictions began sharing their experiences. Baluch, Kurdish, and Arab families in Iran also reported comparable obstacles when registering names chosen for their children and criticized restrictions imposed by civil registration authorities.
Source: IranWire, Azerbaijani Service
Original publication date: March 8, 2023
Original report: https://iranwire.com/azb/news-3/114554