RAHANA: Mohammad Bnyazadh children’s rights activists announced: more than 900,000 underage married children live in Iran.

According to ILNA, while stating these children’s husbands are of variety added, marrying underage children is against the standards of International Children Rights.

He added: IN one hand the law does not allow an 11 year ld to vote due to their inability to judge correctly, on the other hand, the age limit for marriage in considered bettwen ages of 9 to 13 by the same book of law.

Member of Cultural Center/ center of support for child labor added: child’s age at the time of voting is set in accordance with international standards and for entering the field of work, 15 to 18 year old children can work and their rights are ignored.

Bonyazadeh states, unfortunately, little girls in our country that are married off at such young age instead of having time to be child, play around, do sports and get educated must position duties of a wife and a sexual partner and take care of a household. While these children are also expected to carry children, their lives are put in serious danger and risks caused by child birth.

Translated by: St Journalist

وجود بیش از ۹۰۰ هزار کودک متاهل در کشور

رهانا:  محمد بنیازاده از فعالین حقوق کودک اعلام کرد:  بیش از ۹۰۰ هزارکودک متاهل در کشور وجود دارد

به گزارش خبرگزاری ایلنا، وی  با اعلام اینکه در مورد همسران کودک یا کودک همسرها آمارهای گوناگونی وجود دارد تا کید کرد: منابع رسمی حکایت از وجود ۹۰۰ تا ۹۵۰ هزار کودک همسر در کشور دارد، این در حالی است که چنین اتفاقاتی در حوزه کودکان برخلاف کنوانسیون بین‌الملل حقوق کودک است

او با بیان اینکه آمارهای غیر رسمی به واقعیتهای دیگری در این حوزه اشاره دارد، ادامه داد: قانون از یک سو کودک را زیر ۱۱ سال می‌داند و آن را در فرایند انتخابات، فاقد توانایی تفکر، ‌تعقل و تصمیم گیری برای انتخاب کاندیدا می‌داند اما سن ازدواج در کشور از سنین ۹تا ۱۳ سالگی تعریف می‌شود

عضو کانون فرهنگی – حمایت کودکان کار ادامه داد: سن کودک در زمان رای دادن مطابق با استانداردهای بین‌المللی و قانونی تعریف می‌شود اما با وارد شدن به حوزه کار، کودکان ۱۵ تا ۱۸ سال بنا به شرایطی می‌توانند کار کنند و منافع کودک نادیده گرفته می‌شود این درحالی است که به مقاوله نامه منع بدترین اشکال کار برای کودکان توجه نشده و نظارتی نیز بر مشاغل سخت کودکان زیر ۱۸ سال وجود ندارد

به گفته بنیازاده،  متاسفانه دختران کم سن و سال و متاهل درکشور به جای کودکی کردن، نشاط، ورزش و تحصیل باید در موقعیت یک همسر و شریک جنسی ایفای نقش کرده و تمام مسوولیت‌های خطیر همچون خانه داری را عهده دار شود،  در حالی که تجربه بارداری و زایمان‌های پرخطر که در این سن برکودکان تحمیل می‌شود، عوارض و خطرات زیادی برای آنها و حتی فرزندانشان دارد

Children taking part in a rally marking the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Tehran last year -- Iran's next generation of martyrs?

By Hossein Aryan

Acting on orders from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to counter the “soft war” launched by Iran’s enemies after last year’s disputed presidential election, the Basij militia have beefed up their ideological indoctrination of schoolchildren.

Brigadier General Mohammad-Saleh Jokar, who heads the Students Basij, told the Mehr news agency last week that in the last six months, 6,000 “resistance centers” have been established in elementary schools in order to fully prepare children for joining Basij units when they transfer to middle schools at the age of 12.

The idea of expanding Basij activities was first announced last November, when Jokar told Mehr that “schoolchildren are more susceptible at a young age than at any other time in their lives…and we want to promote and instill into elementary schoolchildren the ideas of the revolution and Basij.”

Martyrdom Icon

The Basij Resistance Force, with a nominal strength of 12.6 million, has been present in schools since it was first created 31 years ago, but the law authorizing the government to establish schoolchildren’s Basij units was ratified by the Majlis only in April 1996.

During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, when self-sacrifice and martyrdom became the quintessential values of the Islamic revolution and the guiding principles of Iranian society, more than 550,000 students were sent to the front, often with a plastic “key to paradise” hanging around their necks and the promise that they would automatically go to paradise if they died in battle.

General Jokar told the Fars news agency last October that 36,000 schoolchildren were killed and 2,853 injured during the war, while 2,433 were taken prisoner. The exceptionally high ratio of dead to wounded (in a conventional war between professional armies the number of wounded is higher than the number of those killed) reflects the children’s lack of military training: they were used as cannon fodder in human-wave attacks launched by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps against the Iraqi forces.

In order to promote and glorify the spirit of martyrdom in line with the law enacted by the Majlis, October 30 is celebrated as Student Basij Day.

It was on that day in 1980, during the battle for the southern port of Khorramshahr at the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War, that 13-year-old Hossein Fahmideh pulled the pin out of a grenade and leaped clutching it under an advancing Iraqi tank, killing himself and disabling the tank. Islamic republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared Fahmideh a hero, and a monument to him was later erected on the outskirts of Tehran. That monument has since become a place of pilgrimage for schoolchildren.

Discussing the importance of observing Islamic standards in kindergartens, Welfare and Social Security Minister Sadeq Mahsouli, himself a former Revolutionary Guard commander, said last month that “children should be educated in such a way that when they reach the age of 13, they will be able to imitate Hossein Fahmideh.”

Pioneers, Komsomol, And Commissars

According to General Jokar, the Student Basij currently numbers 4.6 million members of both sexes. They are subdivided into units of “Omidan” (Hopes, in elementary schools); “Pouyandegan” (Seekers, in middle schools) and “Pishgaman” (Standard Bearers, in high schools). Those subdivisions are similar to the Young Pioneers and Komsomol in the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, 4,000 experts in political education are to be sent to schools across the country, a senior Education Ministry official recently told the Iranian Labor News Agency. Those experts, who bear a striking resemblance to Soviet-era political commissars, are to show children “how to combat the onslaught of [Western] culture and inform them about the enemies’ plots being hatched against the Islamic revolution.”

“The clerical regime is once again using religion to create an ideology in order to brainwash schoolchildren and consolidate its authority in society, the way many other authoritarian regimes do,” Azadeh Kian, a political sociologist at Paris University VIII, tells RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.

Increasing Indoctrination

Confirming that the indoctrination of schoolchildren has become a priority for the regime, Education Minister Hamid-Reza Hajibabai recently disclosed that “10,000 houses of the Koran, 20,000 prayer rooms, and 20,000 libraries will be established in schools.”

Said Payvandi, a professor of education at the University of Paris VI, describes such indoctrination as anathema to education. “All international charters stress that children, especially 7-14-year-olds, should receive education in a free environment devoid of ideological pressure or military training,” he tells RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.

Schoolteachers too are seriously concerned by the government’s measures to indoctrinate even the youngest schoolchildren. A teacher from the province of Khuzestan who asked not to be named told Radio Farda that the presence of at least one Basij at every school, Basij cooperation with the Intelligence Ministry, and the selection of Basij members as headmasters in most schools has brought schools firmly under the control of the security agencies.

Yet these combined measures were not sufficient to prevent student protests at a number of schools last September inspired by the post-presidential-election demonstrations.

It seems as though the government’s education policy over the past 30 years has not succeeded in molding young Iranians’ minds. “The government’s failed policy manifested itself in [the post-presidential-election] protests by young people who were born after the [1979] revolution and grew up in an environment imbued with propaganda and the ideologization of Islam. But the result [of that brain-washing] has been the opposite of what the regime intended,” says sociologist Azadeh Kian.

Rouzbeh Bolhari of RFE/RL’s Radio Farda contributed to this article. Hossein Aryan is deputy director of Radio Farda. The views expressed in this commentary are his own, and do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL

Source: Radio Free Europe

Due to new rules by the Ministry of Education, Shadan Shirzi was unable to register for eighth grade.

According to a RAHANA reporter, previously, the government allowed all students to sign up for the school’s entrance exam and prevented Baha’i students from registration after they had passed the test. Now, discrimination has increased to the point where Baha’i students are no longer even able to register for the entrance exam.

Source: RAHANA

CAPTION FOR BELOW IMAGES | In this form, if applicants fail to fill out the “religion” option, a box with this message pops up: “Unfortunately, the information given was not submitted.” However, if options other than “religion” such as “school type” are not filled out, applicants get the message, “School type was not chosen.”

محروم کردن یک دانش‌آموز بهایی از تحصیل در مدرسه‌ی تیزهوشان

رهانا: شادان شیرازی که قصد ثبت نام در آزمون تیزهوشان در مقطع سوم راهنمایی را داشته بر اساس سیاسیت‌های جدید آموزش و پرورش از تحصیل در این مدرسه محروم شده است.

به گزارش خبرنگار رهانا، پیشتر، دولت ایران به همه دانش آموزان اجازه شرکت در آزمون تیزهوشان را می داد و وقتی دانش آموز بهایی در آزمون قبول می شد، از شرکت‌اش در مدارس تیزهوشان، جلوگیری به عمل می آمد اما با گزارشی که در ادامه دیده می شود به نظر می رسد این مرز تبعیض پیش‌روی شایانی کرده است و یک دانش آموز بهایی نمی‌تواند حتی در این آزمون ثبت نام کند.

توضیح در مورد عکس‌ها:
در این فرم اگر یکی از گزینه‌های مربوط به دین پر نشده باشد متقاضی با این پیام روبه‌رو می‌شود: متاسفانه اطلاعات ثبت نشده اما اگر در همین فرم گزینه‌‌های دیگر مانند نوع مدرسه پر نشود، مخاطب با چنین پیامی روبه‌رو می‌شود: نوع مدرسه‌ی دانش‌آموز انتخاب نشده است.

General Director of Office for Children and Young Adult Welfare Organization said: “Our teachings should not be as abstract because children have no picture of chastity, but should be in the form of song and game for children.” General Director of Office for Children and Young Adult Welfare Organization in an interview with ILNA reporter about the initiation of chastity and the veil project in the nursery pointed out that 80 percent of brain growth and 70 percent of quality of human personality is formed in early childhood, and stated: It is natural if we use indirect religious teachings to our children, we will see better effects in the long run.

3Mohammad Javadi also emphasized: Our teachings should not be as abstract because children have no picture of chastity, but should be in the form of song and game for children.

He also talked about other parts of this project and said: “Nearly 55 thousand pre school teachers and administrators have been covered and educated by this program.”

At the end of his speech, by mentioning that only 20 percent of our children use the nursery services, said: “As a result we can only offer these services to a limited range in the community, but we do not want to cover certain part yet we it should be extended to the national range, so we should not dismiss the other 80 percent.

Translated by  Street Journalist

آموزش عفاف در قالب بازي و شعر در مهدكودك‌ها

خبرگزاری هرانا - مديركل دفتر امور كودكان و نوجوانان سازمان بهزيستي كشور گفت: آموزه‌هاي ما نبايد به صورت مفاهيم انتزاعي باشد به اين دليل كه كودكان تصويري از عفاف ندارند، بلكه بايد در غالب بازي و شعرهاي كودكانه باشد.

مديركل دفتر امور كودكان و نوجوانان سازمان بهزيستي كشور در گفت‌وگو با خبرنگار ايلنا درباره آغاز طرح عفاف و حجاب در مهدكودك‌ها با اشاره به اينكه 80 درصد رشد كيفي مغز و 70 درصد شخصيت انسان در دوران خردسالي شكل مي‌گيرد، گفت: طبيعي است كه هر چقدر بتوانيم، آموزه‌هاي غيرمستقيم ديني به كودكانمان بدهيم، اثرات يادگيري آن در بلندمدت بيشتر است.

محمدحسين جوادي در اين باره تاكيد كرد: آموزه‌هاي ما نبايد به صورت مفاهيم انتزاعي باشد به اين دليل كه كودكان تصويري از عفاف ندارند، بلكه بايد در غالب بازي و شعرهاي كودكانه باشد.

وي درباره بخش ديگري از اين طرح گفت: 55 هزار نفر از مربيان و مديران مهدهاي كودك در برنامه‌هاي آموزشي فرهنگ حجاب و پوشش شركت داده شده‌اند.

وي هم چنين در پايان با بيان اينكه تنها 20 درصد از كودكان ما از خدمات مهدكودك‌ها استفاده مي‌كنند، گفت: در نتيجه ما تنها مي‌توانيم اين خدمات و برنامه‌ريزي‌ها را براي طيف محدودي از جامعه ارايه دهيم ولي ما حجاب را تنها براي يك طيف نمي‌خواهيم بلكه مي‌خواهيم در سطح كشور گسترش يابد پس نبايد از 80 درصد ديگر قافل شويم.

Hrana News – Sadegh Mahsooli, Minister of Welfare and Social Security, on Thursday, demanded that the religious principles to be in preschools.
According to ILNA, Mr. Mahsooli has criticized that there are some irregularities in preschools, added: “Such preschools will be treated seriously and instead there will be loans given to preschools that carry out the Islamic rules.”
Sadegh Mahsooli said: “Preschools should work in such manner that the children at the age of 13 be ready for martyrdom.
Minister of Welfare and Social Security pointed out a martyr, Mohamad Hossein who at the age of 13 have sensed that in the war between Iraq and Iran, when the Iraqi forces attacked Khoramshahr, he had tied some grenade to himself, blown up an Iraqi tanker and died.

Translated by St. Journalist

Rhana News – Member of Board of Directors of Childrens Protection Rights Association said: According to the latest data announced, 2 million remaining children are suffering lackk of education, divorce had a 13% growth and also unemployment had intensified however, families and youth before any attempts to have children need to learn the methods of marital relationships, raising children and life skills.
According to Aftab News, Leila Arshad in pointing to the recent remarks by the President to encourage families to increase the number of children in Iran, while opposing the increased birth rate, emphasized: before setting policies to increase the birth rate in the country, there should be accurate actions and management policies.
She pointed to the need to think before special measures to promote birth added: Increasing number of children needs a detailed of economic, social, cultural and educational plan.  This policy is while considering the current poverty line and family income levels and leading to increased poverty.
A Board member of Childrens Protection Rights Association stated that many of the social pathology in the families are derived out of poverty, pointed: When there are still no measures taken to reduce poverty in the country and the situation of children and families in the more disadvantaged provinces is deteriorating, there should not be talks about family planning in the country.
She pointed to the statistics and the increasing violence and murders in families: isn’t it better before offering ideas about the increasing birth rate in the country to take care of poor children who are in need of urgent financial, cultural, social and …. so the new generation will grow with proper health and welfare?
This Children Activist pointed to the statistics of Sedayeh Yara (yara’s voice) and said:  Many studies and statistics in Sedayeh Yara show that abusing children is as a result of parent having multiple jobs, unemployment and even increasing poverty, therefore, such ideas for increasing birth in the country has essential problems and increasing the number of children in Iran is not a proper and successful solution.
Member of Board of Directors of Childrens Protection Rights Association, referring to future projects from the beginning of the new year which is based on One Million Toman to be deposited into every new Iranian infant’s account emphasized: Although this plan helps the culture of savings planning in the country but families with no financial problems will never promote it and this issue will lead to a disadvantage for poor families.

Translated by St. Journalist

There is a road in south of Tehran that leads you to Behesht-e Zahra (a local cemetery), and the kids along the road are the spirits of paradise who make their living by selling flowers.

There are glimpses of light in their eyes under the scorching summer sun and the freezing winter winds that hopes one of the hundreds of cars that pass by will stop to buy a flower from them.

Most of them are kids, although you may occasionally find adolescents as well. Hunger and thirst are meaningless when cars don’t stop to buy a flower.

Mothers wait anxiously each day for their children to return in hopes they will bring food home in their innocent hands to put on the table.

The sun is still not out when the mothers send their children out [for the day]. By noon, she anxiously waits.  This is south of Tehran, Iran’s capital.

Her eyes are on the road as she waits. She wants to focus all her attention on the arriving car, so she can get to it faster than the others.  The cruel autumn wind slaps her face red. She says her name is Mahboubeh and she is 15 years old. She runs toward the next car. Her small figure resembles a 10-year old, while the hard skin on her hands look like those of a mature and experienced woman. She works alongside her brother who also sells flowers to provide for their family.  She desperately longs to go to school and study, but her countless absence from school has gotten her expelled.

Each week, at least two children are killed either trying to run away from the cops or they are hit by careless drivers.  Nonetheless, their parents still send them out the next day to work again. They buy a batch of flowers for 3000 toman ($3.00 USD) from the market and sell them for 5000 toman ($5.00 USD).

In contrast to the luxurious flower shops uptown Tehran, the girls on the streets hold flowers that are no longer full of fragrance. The look on their faces is different from the other children their age who live uptown. The flowers in their hands begs to be bought, just to provide enough money to buy a sandwich for dinner.  It has been years since the roads are filled with this dreadful image.  It seems that the government and the people accountable for such a disparity have not yet realized that it is time for them to take action for change.

According to the law, it is the municipality’s job to deal with these situations and solve the problems. A representative of the mayor from Section 5 of area 19 in Tehran has blamed the flower girls for the traffic on Behesht-e Zahra highway. He claims that the presence of the flower girls leads to two deaths per week.

According to the representative, at the beginning of the highway, there are the Iranian flower sellers. Further along, there are the Afghan flower sellers. He claims that each Afghan flower seller has 30 people accompanying him or her, which contributes to the traffic. He says that the municipality of Tehran has the power to stop the flower sellers; however the prosecutor of Shahr-e Rey does not allow legal actions to be taken, insisting that selling flowers is not a crime.

This representative also claims that most of the adolescents selling flowers are addicts to opium, crystal, and other substances; [selling flowers] is the easiest and most profitable job the children can take on that will provide them with enough money to buy drugs. In order to counter this [problem], he insists that the city builds several centers to buy flowers inside the cemetery.  On the other hand, since it is difficult for addicts to maintain a job, they refuse to work inside the cemetery shops and continue to work on the streets.

Nevertheless, people continue to buy their flowers from street sellers, either because of sympathy, or for the luxury of sitting in their car and have flowers delivered to them. With an angry tone, the representative insists that this problem could be solved with the help of the police force. He states that if an officer stands every 100 meters and controls the situation, a lot of the unfortunate deaths can be prevented.

Also, the police blame the municipality for not dealing with the problem. He claims that the existence of street sellers, specifically kids selling flowers, has increased traffic and the probability of accidents. Majidi (chief of police) adds, “The presence of young children on the road side and highway is proof that the municipality is not taking action against the problem, which has consequently led to many accidents.”

The flower sellers mostly live in areas surrounding the cemetery like Eslam Shahr, Saleh Abad, Bagher Abad, and Varamin. People living in these neighbourhoods are very poor and forced to sell flowers to survive. If they are lucky not to be caught by the police, they have to work all day under the blazing sun or cold winter wind, just to save enough money to buy something to eat at the end of the day.

The presence of the children along the highway demonstrates that despite promises made by the officials, nothing has improved. Instead of helping the children, everyone is somehow trying to take the responsibility off themselves and place it on someone else. The transportation police have only agreed to station officers along the highway on specific occasions, and the municipality has merely built a few flower shop in the cemetery to [supposedly] help with the situation. These stores sell the flowers for twice the amount they are sold on the streets.

Several meetings have taken place with various responsible organizations to deal with the issue, and many initiatives have been drafted.  Still, the flower kids are on the streets chasing bills.

Translation by persian2english.com

Saeed Hassanzadeh, a children’s rights activist who was arrested on January 1, 2010, was taken to the court on February 4, 2010 and a bail agreement was issued for him.

According to RAHANA, on February 6, 2010, the agreement was reversed and now a sponsor (guarantor) is needed for the bail. Saeed’s family has not been able to find someone to act as the sponsor. Consequently, Saeed Hassanzadeh remains in prison.

Source: RAHANA

Mehdi Amizesh, a child-labor activist, was arrested on January 30th, 2010 and taken to a solitary cell at Evin prison.
According to a RAHANA reporter, the children’s rights activist was able to have a first face-to-face visit with his family, 20 days after his arrest.
Amizesh was brutally arrested and severely beaten by the arresting agents before his mother’s eyes. He suffers from acute stuttering and loses his ability to speak when he is under stress.

Source: RAHANA

Reza Khandan (also known as Morteza Mahabadi) has been missing since his arrest on February 6th, 2010. Khandan is a member of the Iranian Writers Association.
According to a RAHANA reporter, Khandan has not contacted his family since his arrest, leaving them in the dark about his situation. Today, Evin and Revolutionary Court officials refused once again to provide the family of the jailed writer with information.
Also missing is Babak Nazarnejad, who has not contacted his family since his arrest on February 6th, 2010. Nazarnejad is a resident of Shahr-Ray, a township south of Tehran.

Source: RAHANA