Iran Recruits 12-Year-Olds As ‘Combatants Defending The Homeland’

By Ray Furlong and RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Iran has announced that children as young as 12 can sign up under a new program “for combatants defending the homeland,” with applicants directed to mosques and “registration booths” on central squares.

The recruitment scheme was reported by multiple Iranian media outlets and announced by an official from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States, on March 26.

Rahim Nadali, IRGC deputy director for culture in Tehran, said in a TV announcement it was a response to popular demand for ways to help fighters who are “standing up to global aggression,” referring to US and Israeli air strikes.

This claim could not be independently verified by RFE/RL, which is not permitted to operate in Iran.

“We launched a plan that we call For Iran, which is a registration plan for combatants defending the homeland,” Nadali said. “We set the minimum age at twelve and above.”

Official Iranian media reported that duties for recruits would include taking part in patrols and “checkpoint tours.”

This could put children in danger. US and Israeli air strikes have hit checkpoints belonging to the Basij militia, a branch of the IRGC used for the brutal repression of dissent in Iran.

A Basij recruitment poster featured in Iranian media reports about the For Iran program showed children, who appear to be in the project's target age range, standing amid Iranian flags while burning missiles fall from the sky.

'An Increase In Numbers'

It was not clear if the recruitment drive was an effort to rally support, a response to a shortage of personnel, or a combination of these and other motives.

A prominent Iranian children’s rights campaigner told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that child recruitment in the country was not “a new phenomenon” but this time it’s on a larger scale.

“The Basij has consistently recruited children and adolescents. Regarding the checkpoints currently being discussed, the topic has become more media-prominent due to an increase in numbers,” London-based Hamid Farahani said.

“Unfortunately, many parents may actually agree [with this recruitment],” he added. “If parents see their children being drawn in, they should try to dissuade them.”

Iran has a track record of recruiting children for security and even combat roles, most notably using child soldiers during the 1980s war with Iraq. Stories of children sacrificing their lives to destroy Iraqi tanks were taught in Iranian schools as a means of indoctrination.

In 2017, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that Iran was recruiting Afghan children to fight in Syria. It said the children, aged as young as 14, served in an all-Afghan unit supported by Iran that served alongside forces loyal to the then president, Bashar al-Assad, in the country’s civil war. HRW presented photos of tombstones of eight children who died on various Syrian battlefields.

More recently, Iran was accused of using minors to help the suppression of the mass nationwide Women, Life, Freedom protests in 2022, in which hundreds of people were killed by security forces.

Photos shared on social media showed children dressed in what appeared to be Basij uniforms and riot gear. An Iranian charity, the Imam Ali Society, said the children were from poor families and given “a few bags of food” for their work.

Other duties listed in the current recruitment scheme include “distributing items needed by fighters and taking care of homes damaged by enemy attacks,” official media said.

• Ray Furlong is a Senior International Correspondent for RFE/RL. He has reported for RFE/RL from the Balkans, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and elsewhere since joining the company in 2014. He previously worked for 17 years for the BBC as a foreign correspondent in Prague and Berlin, and as a roving international reporter across Europe and the former Soviet Union.
• RFE/RL's Radio Farda breaks through government censorship to deliver accurate news and provide a platform for informed discussion and debate to audiences in Iran.