Iran faces dilemma as children join anti-regime protests

At the beginning of this year, the Will aired a new patriotic song addressed to schoolchildren across the country. Titled “Salute, Commander,” the song was a tribute to Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Imam Mahdi, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad who Shia Muslims believe went into hiding in the 10th century and will reappear one day. to end injustice. .

“Greetings, Commander,” says the song. “I’m a child, but my family’s life and I, it all belongs to you.”

In a music video published in Iranian media, thousands of veiled boys and girls are seen singing in unison for a live performance of the song. Some are seen crying and others are wearing military uniforms as they hold up posters of former Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US airstrike in 2020.

Critics have pointed to the song as an attempt to indoctrinate children and instill in them loyalty to the Islamic Republic.

But analysts in Iran say the current anti-regime protests sweeping the country have shown the regime has failed to subjugate the younger generation after more than 40 years in power.

Protests erupted in Iran on September 17, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in a hospital three days after being arrested by the “morality police” and taken to a “re-education centre”.

More than half of Iranians were born after the 1979 Islamic revolution and know of no other regime, but many are now speaking out.

Schoolchildren are protesting their leaders on an unprecedented scale that can be hard to contain, experts say. In videos on social networks and seen by CNN more protests now involve schoolchildren.

“There is another layer [nas manifestações]which are the protests we’ve seen in schools,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division, adding that it is “unprecedented” for Iran.

The government said it is sending underage protesters to mental health centers.

In an interview with an Iranian reformist newspaper, Iranian Education Minister Yousef Nouri acknowledged last week that students at the school were indeed protesting, and the government is responding by detaining them and sending them to mental health facilities.

The establishments are intended to “reform” protesting students and rid them of their “anti-social” behavior, he said.

Mental health facilities function as detention centers, said Hossein Raeesi, an Iranian human rights lawyer and adjunct professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, adding that within the facilities, psychologists and social workers follow a rigid government agenda rather than can work independently with the children.

An Iranian woman on the hood of a car sets fire to her headscarf in central Tehran during protests by Mahsa Amini / SalamPix/Abaca/Sipa USA

“They do not provide psychological and psychosocial support for the children,” Raeesi told CNN , but rather “brainwashed” and often intimidate or threaten them. “They come out worse than they came in.”

While the official did not say how many students have been detained so far, experts say large numbers of children are at risk as the protests are heavily attended by young people.

Sepehri Far of Human Rights Watch said authorities are finding it difficult to police underage protesters. While it is easy to criminalize adult protesters, violent crackdowns on children risk full-blown rage across the country, she added.

Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of the IRGC, put the average age of prisoners in “recent riots” at 15 years, state news agency IRNA reported on Oct.

Human rights groups say the crackdown on children was brutal, with the government responding to child protesters with arrests and even violence.

Between 20 and 30 September, Amnesty International documented the murder of at least 23 children, it said last week, sounding the alarm about an already violent crackdown now targeting children.

According to Amnesty, “most of the boys were killed by security forces by illegally firing live ammunition at them” and “three girls and one boy died following fatal beatings by security forces”.

“Two boys died after being shot with metal pellets at close range,” he added.

The agency said it had so far recorded the deaths of 144 men, women and children killed by Iranian security forces between Sept. 19 and Oct. 3. Overall, 16% of deaths are among children, Amnesty said, adding that the actual number of deaths estimated to be higher.

THE CNN cannot independently verify the death toll.

On Sunday, a video obtained by CNN pro-reform activist channel IranWire showed high school students in the Narmak area of ​​Tehran protesting and chanting “Death to the Dictator”. On Friday and Saturday, high school girls were seen taking off their headscarves and protesting in the cities of Ardabil and Sanandaj, a video obtained by CNN .

Iran also witnessed protests in October by high school students in the northern city of Rasht, as well as in Ghaleh Hassan Khan, a city east of Tehran, according to a video obtained by Iran. CNN .

The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF also called for the protection of children and adolescents amid the protests in Iran.

“The Iranian authorities’ relentless brutal crackdown on what many in Iran see as an ongoing popular uprising against the Islamic Republic’s system involved an all-out attack on child protesters,” Nassim Papayianni, Amnesty International’s senior activist in Iran, told CNN .

After years of forced ideological upbringing, officials now face a generation that is particularly challenging, said Sepehri Far. “It is a generation that stands up to them.”