Head of Armed Forces Judicial Organization Opposes Military Service Sale

Mohammad Kazem Bahrami, the head of the Armed Forces Judicial Organization, has opposed the proposal to sell military service, stating that such a plan would tarnish the nature of military service. According to a report on Saturday, March 13, by ISNA news agency, Mr. Bahrami announced at the 22nd provincial assembly for crime prevention in the armed forces that he is against the implementation of such a plan. He said, 'Military service will continue in its current form, so we must think about how to improve the current situation.' Military service (conscription) in Iran is mandatory, yet thousands of young people avoid it for various reasons. Over the past 15 years, Iranian officials have changed the duration of military service several times to encourage young people to fulfill their service, but these changes have not been very effective. Currently, military service in Iran lasts 21 months, 19 months in underprivileged areas, and 18 months in border regions. In the 1990s, due to an increase in military service absentees, Iranian officials initiated a military service sale program, allowing approximately 360,000 individuals to pay and be exempted from service. This plan faced significant opposition at the time and was halted, but after several years, Iranian officials decided to implement a similar plan under a different name. According to this plan, which began in 2014 and was approved by the parliament, absentees can be exempted from military service by paying a specified amount as a 'fine.' As of December 2014, Moussa Kamali, the deputy for human resources at the General Staff of the Armed Forces, announced that there are about 1.5 million individuals subject to military service in Iran. A significant number of these individuals registered and paid their fines after the government's decision to impose fines on those who had been absent for eight years. Ibrahim Karimi, the deputy head of the General Organization for Military Service, announced on March 2 of this year that exemption cards were issued for 190,000 individuals under the fine payment plan. Mr. Karimi stated that more than 328,000 people have registered for this plan and met its conditions. According to the 2014 law, fines for military service absentees vary based on educational qualifications: 10 million tomans for those below high school, 15 million for high school graduates, 20 million for associate degree holders, 25 million for bachelor's degree holders, 30 million for master's degree holders, 35 million for non-medical doctorate holders, 40 million for medical doctors, and 50 million for specialist doctors and above. This amount of fine has led approximately 80% of absentees to refrain from registering for this plan, prompting the parliament to establish a new law for the following year. Under the new law, individuals who have been absent from military service for eight years can pay their fines in installments.