Registration of 370,000 Afghan and Foreign Students for the New Academic Year

The Minister of Education announced that 370,000 Afghan and foreign students have been registered to enter school for the new academic year. Mohammad Bat'haei published this news on his personal Twitter page on Thursday (September 14), stating, "I kept my promise. 370,000 Afghan and foreign students will not be left out from school this year." He also added that efforts are being made to register individuals who have not yet been able to provide the necessary documents for enrolling their children in schools in Iran. Registration for these individuals came after a group of children's rights and minority rights activists called for the enrollment of Afghan children residing in Iran in schools, just before the start of the new academic year in Iran. Hundreds of thousands of Afghan children, despite having lived in Iran for years, have not had the opportunity to study in the country's schools. A Twitter storm was also initiated by predominantly Iranian and Afghan users residing in Iran with the hashtag #ازمهرجانمانند (Not Left Out from School) demanding that Afghan children have equal rights to other children. On September 6 of this year, the Deputy Minister of Primary Education announced that all children without identity documents could study by receiving a study card. Rezvan Hakimzadeh Abiyaneh added that children who have been deprived of education due to lack of identity documents can obtain a study card by visiting the local governorates where they live. Marriages between Iranian women and Afghan men have not been accepted by the Iranian government since 2006; the government also does not recognize the children of these marriages, referring to them as "stateless and unregistered children." These children and adolescents in Iran are deprived of the right to education, health insurance, and work, and after going to Afghanistan, they have no right to return to Iran. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had ordered in 2015 that no Afghan child living in Iran, even illegally and without identification, should be deprived of education, and all of them should be registered in Iranian schools. Three months after the start of this initiative, the Ministry of Interior announced that Afghan students aged 7 to 18 without legal residency documents were given the opportunity to apply for a study introduction letter that would allow them to register in Iranian schools. Some Afghan children managed to register in school, but many still remain deprived of education. In this context, children without identity documents "can go to school in Iran" but have been left out from "schooling" for years. Afghan migrant children; fleeing Iran, successful in Sweden. "Undocumented migrants" are not registered in Iranian schools. Refugees who register their children in school "will not be expelled" from Iran.