Iranian forces deployed to a girls’ school

The use of educational institutions and civilian facilities for military purposes in the Islamic Republic of Iran is becoming an increasingly dangerous trend. Newly released footage provides further evidence of this troubling reality.

Footage from a newly built girls’ middle school in Gasht, a city in Saravan County in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, clearly shows armed individuals conducting military training in the schoolyard. These individuals are not ordinary local police or security forces. They are members of the Fatemiyoun armed group, composed mainly of Afghan fighters and operated by the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The fact that this foreign armed group, which was previously used extensively in the bloody fighting in Syria, is now conducting armed training in the yard of a school where young girls are supposed to receive an education makes the situation even more serious.

However, this is not an isolated or accidental incident. Extensive investigations conducted earlier this year found that military and security forces had taken over at least 70 civilian facilities in 17 Iranian provinces for military purposes. Military equipment, weapons, ammunition and personnel were deployed at these facilities. Most concerningly, approximately half of these facilities — 34 in total — are primary and secondary schools. Other facilities include hospitals, mosques, universities, sports stadiums, parks and government offices.

The situation has become so serious that the governor of Tehran recently had to formally call on state and military institutions to return schools they had occupied to the Ministry of Education before the start of the new academic year.

All of this creates an extremely serious and troubling picture. Turning civilian spaces where children should be educated and local residents should be able to seek shelter into part of military infrastructure poses serious risks. Turning schools into training grounds for foreign armed groups directly endangers children’s lives in the first place. At the same time, it increases the risk that these educational institutions could become military targets in any potential future conflict.

In short, schools should be returned to their original purpose and function solely as places of education, not as military barracks.

Giymat Mahir