Amid the military intensity unfolding in Tehran and other Iranian cities, “armed children” are playing key roles in the daily operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij.
“There is not a single street in Iran without the presence of armed children, either as foot patrols, aboard military vehicles, or at checkpoints alongside armed adults,” a young Iranian living in Tehran told Alhurra.
The young man, who requested anonymity for security reasons, indicated that the IRGC and the Basij — the “Popular Mobilization Forces” — distribute armed children aged between 10 and 17 into groups. Some members wear civilian clothes and are present in markets, gatherings, and even alleyways. Their mission is intelligence-related: spying on Iranians, monitoring them, and arresting citizens on charges of espionage or collaboration with the United States and Israel.
Over the past 47 years of rule under Iran’s system of Velayat-e Faqih (Guardianship of the Jurist, Iran’s official doctrine), children have played a central role in military and security formations. When the IRGC established the Basij at the call of Iran’s former Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, at the end of 1979, a major section of the Basij was designated for recruiting children, who participated extensively in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
According to a report issued by Refworld, affiliated with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and based in Geneva, most child recruits received between one and three months of military training at the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war before being sent to the front, while some received no training at all.
The 2001 report noted that Iran used boys as young as nine years old in human wave attacks and as mine clearers during the war with Iraq.
Although the recruitment of children into the ranks of the IRGC and Basij did not cease in the years following the Iran-Iraq war, their presence on the streets remained limited. However, they returned prominently during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising in September 2022, which erupted in Iran following the death of the Iranian Kurdish girl Jina Amini “Mahsa” at the hands of Iran’s morality police in Tehran.
According to testimonies from several Iranian protesters who spoke to Alhurra, armed children participated in suppressing demonstrators, spying on them, and taking photographs of participants in the uprising to facilitate their arrest by IRGC intelligence forces.
The Iranian regime seeks to obscure the existence of child-specific camps affiliated with the IRGC. However, after closely monitoring the issue of armed children in Iran, Alhurra was able to map the locations of major IRGC training bases and camps for children, based on information obtained from Iranian Kurdish opposition parties.
Most of these camps are concentrated in Iranian Kurdistan in the west and north of the country, alongside the presence of some bases in the cities of Tabriz and Tehran in northern Iran, and in Ahvaz in the southwest.
According to the map, Ilam Province in western Iran contains a large number of IRGC bases and headquarters, including camps dedicated to children. Among them is the “Army of the Commander of the Faithful” camp, the primary entity responsible for recruiting and training children and youth in the province. There is also the Imam Hussein camp, located in the same province, which is likewise an active base for recruiting and training school students in Ilam and its surrounding towns and districts.
The map also indicates the existence of another camp in Lorestan in western Iran named the “Ashura Corps,” which is responsible for recruitment operations within mosques and neighborhoods. It relies on clerics and former IRGC and intelligence officers to carry out and manage recruitment activities.
The map further includes other bases dedicated to recruitment and ideological indoctrination in Kermanshah Province, including the “Shahid Rajaei,” “Martyrs,” and “Shahid Sabet Khah” bases. These are also responsible for recruiting children into various security apparatuses affiliated with the IRGC, including Basij branches in mosques, neighborhood Basij units, and Basij units specific to local tribes.
Jamil Ahmadi, a Kurdish political activist residing in Europe, stated that the IRGC recruits both boys and girls through two methods. The first takes place in schools, where the IRGC distributes forms for children to enlist in its ranks and in the Basij, and to participate in other military and security forces. The second method occurs through mosques and centers affiliated with the IRGC and Basij.
Ahmadi noted that the IRGC targets children from poor families, families lacking political awareness, and vulnerable children facing social, psychological, or mental challenges, or physical disabilities. The IRGC exploits these vulnerabilities to recruit them.
“The IRGC has used children in previous years, and in the current war with the United States and Israel, to carry out internal intelligence and espionage operations, to attack demonstrations, conduct raids and inspections, and man checkpoints,” Ahmadi explained to Alhurra, noting that recruited children undergo brainwashing that makes them constantly ready for any operations and among the most loyal to the IRGC and the regime.
Ahmadi added that most children in IRGC and Basij camps are subjected to various forms of abuse during training and while carrying out tasks. He noted that the majority of children recruited in Iran have been subjected to physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, along with intimidation and threats of death or disappearance if they attempt to withdraw or escape in the future. This has long-term negative psychological effects and makes reintegration into society difficult.
According to Iranian activists who spoke to Alhurra from inside Iran, Tehran and other cities have witnessed widespread campaigns in recent weeks to recruit children and various segments of Iranian society to participate in the war against the United States and Israel, and to support the IRGC and Iranian security forces domestically.
The activists stated that “the Basij has posted large numbers of propaganda posters in streets and markets calling on Iranians, especially children, to volunteer in the ranks of the IRGC and participate in the war.”
They added that the IRGC and Basij have not limited themselves to posters but have designated main squares in cities as gathering points for volunteers, where individuals can register their names at designated booths at night, known as “Ummah of Hezbollah,” or by visiting mosques and Basij centers to sign up.
In an interview with Fars News Agency, the official outlet affiliated with the IRGC, Rahim Nada Ali, Deputy Director of Culture and Arts in the IRGC in Tehran, announced on March 26 a new recruitment campaign that openly included children under the title “Fighters Defending the Homeland for Iran.”
Nada Ali said: “Given the warm reception from the noble people, we decided to create an environment that enables all concerned parties to contribute to defending the homeland according to their expertise and capabilities.”
He confirmed that the campaign is open to volunteers starting from the age of 12, noting that participants will be involved in all operational and security fields, including intelligence patrols, inspection operations, and operational patrols. Their duties will also include providing logistical and medical support during the war.
In a statement provided to Alhurra, the Hana Human Rights Organization — an Iranian Kurdish organization based in Canada — expressed deep concern over ongoing recruitment efforts in Iran involving civilians and their use in security operations as human shields, particularly those aged 12 and above.
The organization stated that the use of civilians or even justifying their employment — especially those under 18 — in military environments constitutes a grave violation by Iranian authorities. It exposes civilians to serious physical, psychological, and social harm, and threatens their rights to development, education, and a peaceful life.
The organization’s head, Hamid Bahrami, told Alhurra that “the Islamic Republic of Iran has, in recent weeks, used children as human shields around power stations and industrial and vital centers when the United States threatened to target Iran’s economic infrastructure.”
The article is a translation of the original Arabic.
