Providing military training for children under the title "Purposeful Summer"

Basij bases and mosques have planned a "military training for children" project called "Targeted Summer."

According to a report by the human rights website HRANA, a summer program under the supervision of the Basij organization at the Imam Zaman Mosque in the Khani Abad neighborhood in District 19 of Tehran has been named as an educational program for military training of children.

Several mosques and bases across the country have planned such programs for children under the pretext of the summer holidays. The planning of this plan has taken place while the government of the Islamic Republic has signed and committed to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits the use of children in military affairs, including education.

According to one of the mosque's trustees, these children, who number more than a dozen, are mostly students in the third grade of elementary school to the eighth grade of high school. Also, according to informed residents in the area, the Basij resistance bases of the Imam Zaman, under the direct supervision of the Revolutionary Guards, encourage children under the age of 18 to participate in these classes by installing advertising banners in schools related to military courses within the educational environment.

An informed source also told HRANA: "Following these organized actions, students are assigned to participate in military theory courses, lectures, watch war films, and also review religious and ideological books. Finally, these children are transferred to the shooting range to undergo practical military courses and are trained as "child soldiers."

The use of children in military operations, especially as soldiers, has been ongoing since the Iran-Iraq war. Also, during nationwide protests to suppress the people, many children have been abused by Basij bases to take to the streets to suppress the people. This is despite the fact that the use of children under 15 as military personnel is prohibited in international treaties and is considered a "war crime" according to the Rome Statute.