Washington, June 3, 2008 (IranVNC)—Nearly 12.5 million militiamen in Iran belong to a volunteer group known as the Basij. Last month six of their members were released after admitting the killing of five people in Kerman in the name of religion. But what always fueled the controversy around the Basij is their underage members... school children recruited at the age of 12. Nearly 36,000 of them ended up martyrs in the war with Iraq.
16:30 GMT-12:30 PM/EST
Last month, six Iranian militiamen were released after admitting the killing of five people in Kerman in the name of religion.
The militiamen belong to a volunteer group known as the Basij, which operates in just about every city in Iran. Their task: emergency management, social service, Islamic code enforcement, and also their country's defense. Out of its 2.5 million members nearly half are women. But the Basij also has controversial members:
AnnonGroiss, Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance: "There are Basij units designed specially for school children. In my opinion it is clearly a horrible sign of child abuse, mainly to draft children to defend your own regime."
One of those children was Mohammad HosseinFahmideh... a 13-year-old boy who blew himself up to destroy enemy tanker during the eight-year-war with Iraq. He was glorified in the Islamic Republic as a hero, with hospitals and streets bearing his name. Even a picture of him once graced the Iranian Tuman. Along with Fahmideh, there were other child martyrs:
Groiss: "36000 children martyrs in the war with Iraq... young children were sent to run towards Iraqi positions through minefields first to clear them to wait for regular troops. They were giving them plastic keys symbolizing keys to heaven's gates."
In 1991, Iran signed the UNICEF's Convention on the Rights of the Child, yet its children are constantly recruited in the Basij and are taught early on in schools to embrace martyrdom. (Iran reserves the right to apply Convention provisions according to Islamic law)
Groiss: "There is much more emphasis in Iranian books on education for martyrdom seeking. This is done by using stories and poems about martyrs.... This is a bleeding rainbow over a poem about martyr soldiers in the war with Iraq. But there is a specific subject called Defense Readiness, introduced into the curriculum beginning in Grade 8 for children at 13 or 14 years of age. It includes acquaintance with weapons and explosives, military drills and tactics."
The Ministry of Education has been interested in changing the content of school textbooks according to student's age and gender. It remains to be seen whether images of children, particularly girls, with guns will be an exception. (Check out Textbooks investigative report to learn more about the proposal to create gender-specific textbooks).
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