Militarization of Student Children by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has, in violation of international standards, undertaken the militarization of student children.

In violation of the Islamic Republic’s international commitments regarding “the prohibition of employing children in military and police forces,” the executive manager and coordinator of the “Ashura” jihadist group in Fars Province and one of the officials of the Basij organization affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Qazvin announced that at least two thousand students in Qazvin Province and 1,340 students in Fars Province participated in a marksmanship skills course.

According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child is defined as an individual under 18 years of age, and Iran has been party to this convention since 1994. In accordance with this covenant, the employment of children and adolescents in military and police matters is prohibited. However, the Islamic Republic, like in the cases of child labor, punishment, capital punishment, legal marriage of children, and other matters, has also disregarded this part of its commitments by providing military training and employing individuals under 18 years of age.

According to “Mohammad Pournourali,” executive manager and coordinator of the “Ashura” jihadist group, 1,340 students in Fars Province are being sent to the firing range. He pointed out that this measure is being taken in order to build forces from children and adolescents for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

According to his statements, this operation is conducted in an environment equipped with embankments, canals, tunnels, trenches, explosions, minefields, practice and live fire exercises, barbed wire obstacles, various heavy equipment, and tents. Pournourali emphasized that the site of this camp is designed to be very secure, as the camp will provide training to students in military equipment, enemy recognition, astronomy, physical fitness, and some aspects of warfare in a camp called “Heaven’s Trench.”

Other subjects that are being taught to students in this camp in violation of international commitments include “capturing enemies as prisoners” and “capturing the joint surveillance posts of America, Britain, and Israel.”

According to Mohammad Pournourali, the aforementioned operation is completed in 120 minutes. An operation that, according to his statements, has been carried out more than four hundred times over a fourteen-year period in different regions of the country.

The director of student Basij in Qazvin also announced that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in addition to conducting military courses, also teaches the contents of the military ideology of the Islamic Republic to both male and female students. He emphasized that not only are trainings presented to students under the titles “the power of the Islamic Revolution’s defense,” “familiarity with the structure and objectives of the Basij organization,” and “the teachings of sacred defense,” but all students in grades nine, ten, and twelve, both boys and girls, who studied “defense preparedness,” are also familiarized with the concepts and ideals of “seeking martyrdom.”

It is worth noting that since the nationwide protests began in Iran in September 2022 until now, the Islamic Republic system has also used children among the system’s suppressive forces. Furthermore, documented reports show that since the beginning of the 1979 revolution until now, the Islamic Republic system has extensively and systematically used children in military forces.