Hamid Melikoglu, Voice of America, September 01, 2024
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| Iran Identity Card |
After living nearly six years without an ID card since birth, a child named Huntay and his family were finally able to obtain his ID card yesterday from the Registration Office in the city of Julfa, East Azerbaijan Province.
Huntay’s father, Taymaz Mehralibeyli, posted a picture of his son's ID card on Instagram, writing, “Finally, today, the Iranian Islamic Republic Registration Organization was forced to issue Huntay’s ID card after our resistance.”
Mehralibeyli emphasized that the reason why the registration office opposed the name "Huntay" had become a main topic of discussion within the family and among their close circle. He also mentioned that the resistance his family showed against the registration office’s refusal to issue the ID card was an example of civil struggle.
Some Azerbaijani families, when faced with the Iranian Registration Organization’s refusal to issue an ID card for their children with the names they want, are forced to start long legal battles. These struggles sometimes last for weeks, and at times even years, but sometimes, the desired outcome is not achieved, and the families are forced to choose a different name for their children. The Mehralibeyli family showed great perseverance for nearly six years to get the name they had chosen for their child accepted by the registration office, which has deeply impressed many national activists.
In an interview with Voice of America about three years ago, Taymaz Mehralibeyli explained that the registration office had cited the fact that the name "Huntay" was not of Iranian origin as the reason for rejecting it. He pointed out that Turkish names were often rejected with the argument that they “do not carry Iranian identity,” even though many names from Greek and other foreign cultures are listed in the official Iranian baby name lists. Taymaz had described this situation as “ugly discrimination.”
In Iran, if a family’s chosen name is rejected by the registration department, they may go through bureaucratic and judicial processes to obtain an ID card with that name. When successful, this opens the path for other families. As a result of legal struggles, when an ID card is obtained with a name not on the registration office’s list, other families can easily name their children the same and obtain ID cards without facing difficulties.
The rights of children and the right to obtain an ID card are enshrined in various international documents. According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child has the right to be registered at birth, to have a name, and to acquire a nationality.
Under various international human rights documents, every family has the right to choose the name they wish for their child. This right is recognized as an integral part of children's rights and is connected to the right to obtain an ID card. These rights not only protect families' cultural and linguistic rights but also allow children to freely express their national identity.
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Huntay 6 ildən sonra şəxsiyyət vəsiqəsi sahibi olub