Iran is recruiting child soldiers as young as 12

The Janfada campaign has been promoted as a way to prepare civilians to respond to a potential emergency, including further military confrontation.

By Maddie Ali, The Algemeiner

Iranian state television has launched a campaign to prepare young people for a possible war, with programs under the banner of “Janfada” (those who sacrifice their lives) urging civilians to be ready for what authorities describe as the possibility of a US ground invasion.

The campaign includes a website through which people can register for military and wartime training.

State television has repeatedly warned viewers that a ground invasion could become reality if the conflict with the US escalates, while presenting military readiness as a duty for young Iranians.

Promoted through Iran’s state-controlled media, the campaign has increasingly featured children and teenagers.

The Iranian authorities are recruiting and mobilizing children as young as 12 as part of an effort led by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a military force charged with defending Iran’s authoritarian regime internally and expanding its Islamist revolutionary ideology externally.

Verified photographs and videos show children at checkpoints, patrols, and state-organized events alongside armed security personnel, sometimes carrying AK-pattern rifles themselves.

The campaign has continued to expand in recent weeks. Over the past month, Iranian authorities organized a large public mobilization event in Tehran under the “Janfada” banner.

Thousands of men, women, and children participated in the Sept. 18 military-style exercise, while some teenagers were shown carrying weapons; armed teenagers have been observed at checkpoints and roadblocks in Tehran and other Iranian cities.

Authorities have presented the mobilization as preparation for possible future threats to the Islamic regime, with Iranian officials and state-linked media repeatedly warning of the possibility of renewed conflict with the US and Israel.

The Janfada campaign has been promoted as a way to prepare civilians to respond to a potential emergency, including further military confrontation.

The campaign has now moved beyond online registration. IranWire reported on Sept. 24 that the first Janfada military training center opened at Imam Hossein Square in Tehran.

According to the report, the center run by the Basij, a paramilitary organization operating under the IRGC, is intended to train volunteers and organize them into units and battalions.

The reported program includes general wartime preparedness, local security, surveillance, reconnaissance, search and rescue, and firearms-related training.

Iranian authorities have claimed that tens of millions of people have registered for the Janfada campaign. However, those figures are not verified.

Activists examining the registration website found fewer than 4 million user registrations, while Iranian officials have claimed that more than 30 million people signed up. IranWire has reported doubts about the official figures.

The involvement of children has drawn particular concern from international human rights organizations.

Amnesty International said the recruitment and use of children under 15 in armed conflict can constitute a war crime under international law.

Earlier this year, the regime lowered the minimum age for participation in war-related activities to just 12 years old, recruiting participants to assist with patrols, checkpoints, logistics, and other security roles.

The current mobilization escalates that effort and comes against the backdrop of Iran’s long history of using young people in military campaigns.

During the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 to 1988, the Iranian government mobilized many children through the Basij and other state structures.

Children and teenagers were sent to the front, including, in some cases, for dangerous operations such as clearing minefields.

Hundreds of thousands of children were recruited during the conflict, and tens of thousands were killed.

The use of young people during the Iran-Iraq War became deeply embedded in Iran’s wartime culture.

State propaganda portrayed young volunteers as symbols of sacrifice and patriotism, with images and stories of teenage Basij members becoming part of the official narrative of the war.

For years, Iran has drafted children under 18 into the Basij militia, with Human Rights Watch documenting boys as young as 14 years old killed in combat, revealing a brutal pattern of exploiting children on the battlefield.

In the past, widely circulated social media images and videos have repeatedly shown children and teenagers in military-style uniforms cracking down on protests, including during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, which erupted nationwide after Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, died in a Tehran police station following her arrest for allegedly violating hijab rules.

Under international law, Iran’s latest initiative flagrantly violates the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which explicitly prohibits the use of children in military activities.

Human rights groups have also repeatedly accused Iranian security forces of killing child protesters during past crackdowns.

According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, hundreds of children were killed during the nationwide anti‑government protests earlier this year, which security forces violently crushed, leaving tens of thousands of demonstrators tortured or killed.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also documented cases of children being shot, detained, and abused during these latest demonstrations, noting that government forces have repeatedly targeted minors in ways that breach international law.

The regime’s current recruitment campaign is taking place against the backdrop of another deadly incident involving children: the US bombing of a school in the city of Minab during the first day of the US-Israel strikes on Iran earlier this year.

Satellite imagery and analysis showed the school’s proximity to an IRGC compound. The location of the Minab school has raised questions about the risks faced by civilians when military installations are located close to schools and other populated, civilian areas.

The renewed mobilization is making children and teenagers increasingly visible in state-organized wartime activities, presenting military preparedness, sacrifice, and responsibilities that extend beyond adult soldiers.

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