Iran: 12-year-olds recruited for war and repression

   par Massoumeh Raouf  sur atalayar.com 

 

Iran is officially enlisting children as young as 12 in security operations, revealing a crisis within its repressive apparatus and a flagrant breach of international standards amid a growing crackdown

Introduction

As Iran finds itself embroiled in a devastating war and suffers attacks from US and Israeli forces, the authorities are crossing a new line: the official recruitment of children as young as 12 into the security forces. Far from being an isolated incident, this practice is part of a historical trend and highlights the exhaustion of a repressive apparatus facing a society in transformation.

An official decision confirming a downward spiral

On 26 March 2026, Rahim Nadali, cultural affairs officer for the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran, announced on state television that teenagers aged 12 and 13 would henceforth be integrated into security operations. According to his statements, these young people will take part in “operational patrols”, at “checkpoints” and in the “collection of security data”. This measure comes at a time when the security forces are setting up more and more checkpoints in the capital to quell any protests against the Islamic Republic.

Nadali justifies this shift by citing an alleged “strong demand” from young people in the face of the “global tyrant”. However, this mobilisation appears to be a desperate response to the threat of new uprisings. The Revolutionary Guards have, moreover, warned that they would respond “more lethally” than they did on 8 January in the event of unrest.

In this context, recent data provides concrete evidence of the consequences of this policy. According to a report published in recent days by the Teachers’ Basij, the death of an 11-year-old pupil, Alireza Jafari, has been confirmed during a mission at a checkpoint on the Artesh motorway in Tehran. According to this source, the boy died “in the line of duty” during a drone attack. This information, already reported by other media outlets, has been accompanied by testimonies from the family: his mother told the Hamshahri newspaper that his father had taken the boy to the site due to staff shortages. She also points out that the presence of teenagers aged between 15 and 16 at these checkpoints is commonplace.

A practice rooted in the history of the Islamic Republic

The use of children by the Revolutionary Guard is not a new phenomenon. During the Iran-Iraq war, thousands of children were sent to the front line, in particular to clear minefields.

According to figures released by the official IRNA news agency (29 September 2014), more than 33,000 schoolchildren are believed to have died during the conflict. As early as 1983, the government newspaper Ettelaat described these scenes: teenagers aged 14 or 15 advancing through minefields, some wrapping themselves in blankets before throwing themselves to the ground to limit the scattering of their bodies following explosions.

In 1983, I myself witnessed the recruitment of schoolchildren by the Pasdaran for the war and for repression. People called them “Basiji chicks” or “disposable mini-soldiers”, an expression that brutally summed up the perception of their role on the ground.

These figures, drawn from official sources and first-hand accounts, document a mass mobilisation of children in high-risk operations.

The use of children in military activities is not limited to Iranian territory. In October 2018, during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, US Ambassador Nikki Haley stated that the Revolutionary Guards were recruiting and training children to send them to Syria in support of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

A violation of international standards in a context of growing repression

Under international law, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the participation of persons under the age of 18 in activities related to a conflict or to militarised structures is strictly regulated and may constitute a breach of international law.

The integration of 12-year-old children into patrols, checkpoints or intelligence roles exposes them directly to physical and psychological risks. Even when presented as “voluntary”, such involvement raises significant questions regarding the responsibility of the authorities.

This development is taking place against a backdrop of intense repression. According to data from human rights organisations, in 2025, 78,126 people were detained solely for “expressing an opinion”.

Beyond the legal issues, the gradual lowering of the age of participation—from 18 to 15, and now to 12—reflects a transformation in the relationship between power and society. It reveals a growing difficulty in mobilising adults, in a context where a significant proportion of Iranian youth have played an active role in recent protest movements.

In this context, the use of children appears to be an attempt to compensate for the loss of control over an older and more politicised population.

The use of children in the machinery of repression is therefore neither symbolic nor exceptional: it seems to indicate a weakening of the control apparatus and an inability to contain a society in turmoil. It highlights a deeper reality: that of a regime facing a generation it can no longer dominate, to the point of now recruiting children in an attempt to preserve its control.

In the face of this flagrant violation of international treaties, the silence of UNICEF and UN bodies is unacceptable. The recruitment of children under the age of 12 for security missions constitutes criminal military exploitation. We call on the international community to strongly condemn these practices and demand an immediate end to the instrumentalisation of children by the Iranian regime. Children’s rights must not be sacrificed for the sake of the survival of a regime.