Children's rights
Azerbaijani children in Iran are taught to read and write in a language most of them do not speak at home. Many face early marriage, child labour and poverty.
Education only in Persian leaves many Azerbaijani-speaking children behind from their first day at school, with lasting effects on learning and self-worth. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has raised the situation of minority children, including their education, in its reviews of Iran.
Iranian law permits the marriage of girls from the age of 13, and of younger children with a court's approval. We document harms to children and advocate for mother-tongue education, an end to child marriage and protection from exploitation.
The law is on their side
- Convention on the Rights of the Child, articles 2, 28, 29 and 30 (ratified by Iran in 1994)
- Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, article 15, which permits teaching regional literature in schools
What we document
- No right to education in the mother tongue
- Child marriage under current civil law
- Child labour and economic exploitation
- Detention of minors during protests
- Unequal access to quality schools and health care
What we do
- Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Collect evidence on the effects of monolingual schooling
- Advocate with education experts for mother-tongue and bilingual models
- Support campaigns to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18
One signature, one message, one shared report can be the difference between a name that is forgotten and a person who is freed.