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| Iranian ID card |
In Iranian Azerbaijan's Ardabil province, a Turkish family managed to obtain an ID card for their child with the name "Manas" after a 70-day legal struggle. This result came after the family filed a lawsuit against the Germi Civil Registration Office.
The "My Child's Name" campaign's Instagram page shared the court ruling and a photo of the ID card issued with the name "Manas," announcing that the Turkish family's legal battle, which lasted more than two months, had been successful.
Manas was born in Germi, Ardabil province, on November 9 of last year. The child's father, Hujjat Dana, applied to the Germi Civil Registration Office in November 2024, but the office staff refused to register the name. Following this, the family filed a case with the Germi General and Legal Court to obtain an ID card with the name they had chosen.
Referring to Article 198 of the Civil Procedure Code, the court issued a decision ordering the Civil Registration Office to issue an ID card with the name "Manas." As a result, the office was compelled to issue the ID card in accordance with the court's ruling.
Currently, the Iranian Registration Organization strongly resists the registration of names that are not on the approved names list. Even for previously registered names, the issuance of ID cards is often refused. As a result, parents are forced to start legal battles to have names that have been approved by court orders re-registered.
Critics view the Iranian government's restrictions on parents' ability to choose names for their children as a policy that limits citizens' civil liberties.
Criticism has been raised that this policy is primarily ideologically motivated. In a statement some time ago, the head of the Registration Organization, Hashim Kargar, expressed the intention to promote the use of "Iranian and Islamic" names and to "purify" names outside this framework. He announced that names not included in this category would be prevented from being used.
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Ərdəbildə azərbaycanlı valideynlər övladlarına "Manas" adını hüquqi mübarizə yolu ilə qeydiyyata aldıra bilib