Iran’s ‘Janfada’ campaign recruits women for wartime training as regime expands civilian mobilization

The recruitment of women exposes a striking contradiction in a system that has spent decades restricting women’s personal freedoms in the name of Islamic values.

By Maddie Ali, The Algemeiner

The Iranian government is expanding its “Janfada” volunteer campaign to include women in military training, preparing civilian supporters for a potential renewed confrontation with the United States and Israel as the regime intensifies its efforts to mobilize the population for war.

Women have been photographed receiving weapons training, practicing with firearms, and learning about military systems in Tehran as part of the campaign, which the Islamic regime describes as a national defense initiative.

The developments raise questions about the regime’s growing reliance on civilian mobilization, its treatment of women under its religious laws, and the extent to which ordinary Iranians are being drawn into its military preparations.

On Oct. 4, women participating in the Janfada program attended training sessions at Imam Hossein Square in Tehran.

Distributed footage showed women receiving instructions on firearms and military equipment.

Subsequent sessions lasted three hours and took place three days a week, and they also covered potential fighting in urban areas.

The campaign, whose name translates to “those who sacrifice their lives,” is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its Basij paramilitary organization.

Initially presented as a broad mobilization effort, Janfada has become an organized program that encourages civilians to register for military and emergency-response training.

The IRGC has also promoted plans to establish 1,000 “National Resistance Battalions,” integrating registered volunteers, including women, into organized units.

The campaign has shifted from a public pledge of support toward a more explicitly militarized structure.

The recruitment of women exposes a striking contradiction in a system that has spent decades restricting women’s personal freedoms in the name of Islamic values.

The Islamic Republic enforces compulsory hijab, imposes gender-based restrictions, and has punished women who challenge its religious and social authority and rules.

Yet when the state calls for wartime mobilization, women are encouraged to participate in military preparations.

Under interpretations of Islamic jurisprudence, the recruitment of women and their participation in armed combat has been subject to restrictions and distinguished from supporting roles in warfare.

The contradiction lies in the regime’s selective application of religious principles.

For decades, the Iranian regime has invoked Islamic principles to justify restrictions on women’s freedom, autonomy, and participation in public life.

However, when its military and political interests demand broader mobilization, those same ideological boundaries appear more flexible.

Through the Janfada campaign, women are now being drawn into weapons training and public military training exercises intended to demonstrate Iran’s readiness for a possible renewed conflict with the US and Israel.

The expanding recruitment of women also raises questions about the regime’s manpower needs.

Authorities have broadened participation beyond conventional military personnel, drawing in women, the elderly, young people, and other civilian groups.

The IRGC has separately promoted recruitment involving children as young as 12, a practice that has prompted serious human rights concerns.

The government’s claims about the number of registrations have also attracted scrutiny.

Initial assertions of tens of millions of sign-ups lacked verifiable data, and a recent technical investigation revealed duplicate submissions, casting further doubt on the figures’ credibility.

Iranian officials have framed civilian training as preparation for a possible ground attack, with state-controlled media promoting military readiness as a patriotic obligation, urging citizens to prepare to defend the country.

However, the Islamic Republic is now calling on civilians to defend a state that violently suppressed nationwide anti-government protests in January, brutally slaughtering protesters and carrying out executions afterwards.

The same population subjected to state repression is now being urged to demonstrate loyalty and prepare for war in the name of national defense.

As Janfada expands, the central question in Iran is not simply how many Iranians that authorities can recruit.

It is whether the regime is preparing to protect the population or preparing them, including women and children, to bear the consequences of another war.