Problems of 'Stateless Children': They Are Not Allowed to Attend School

Despite numerous promises from the officials of the Islamic Republic, many children and adolescents in Iran remain 'stateless' and face numerous challenges in their daily lives. 'Maryam' spoke to ILNA news agency about the problems arising from her children's lack of identification, saying that when she went to register her daughter for school, she found out that because her daughter 'does not have an ID', she cannot study in her local school alongside her friends. She added, 'Our problems became serious when my daughter wanted to go to first grade and had no documents. She was not registered at school, and we had to send her to a self-managed school, where she could not study for more than a week.' Maryam, who lives in eastern Iran, married an Afghan worker in Iran in 1994 and has four children born in Iran. 'Self-managed schools' are those established by 'a group of educated migrants and civil society organizations concerned about cultural issues' to ensure that 'every student who cannot study in public schools' is not deprived of the right to education and can study in these schools, even with 'minimal facilities.' Previously, Mehdi Fayyazi, head of the International Affairs and Schools Abroad Center of the Ministry of Education, threatened to 'shut down' self-managed schools if they did not obtain 'licenses' from government bodies. According to ILNA, 'Zahra,' another mother who could not obtain identification for her children due to 'marriage to a non-Iranian man,' has also been 'without identification' herself and managed to obtain an ID two years ago. She believes she is suffering from her parents' 'ignorance' and that if she is facing these problems today, it is due to her parents' 'neglect.' She said, 'I was born in 1983, and with the new law, I received my ID about two years ago at the age of 38, but now according to the new law, my children are not entitled to an ID, and they say I should have had an ID before my children were born.' This mother added, 'We have even filed a case and completed all documents proving marriage and genetic testing, but we have not received any news, and they say we should not have filed a case and should wait for the law to be implemented for us.' Abdullah Hatamian, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, stated in March 2019 that there are '300 to 400 thousand stateless children' in Iran who are now about 25 years old but 'cannot marry, obtain a driver's license, have the right to employment, have legitimacy, or be legal.' The laws of the Islamic Republic do not recognize the children born from the marriage of Iranian women to non-Iranian men as Iranian citizens and do not provide them with identity documents. There have been several attempts to provide official identity documents to these individuals, which have often faced opposition from security agencies or conservative groups close to the Iranian government. In this regard, the 'Shahrvand' newspaper, affiliated with the Iranian Red Crescent Society, reported last November that 'one million stateless individuals' is the latest statistic on the stateless in Iran, with some statistics also indicating the existence of '400 thousand children' among the stateless. The stamp of statelessness is evident on the face of Sistan and Baluchestan; the government's approach has become 'security-oriented.' It is being done at the request of representatives; the difficulty of granting citizenship to the children of Iranian mothers. The Secretary of the Scientific Association of Children's Rights in Iran stated that we do not have accurate statistics on working children.