Kurdish language teachers have been facing harassment and persecution.12 13 Education in some minority languages like Kurdish is available only through private classes, reducing the accessibility and affordability of Kurdish education. Furthermore, private teachers are required to obtain a license from the state to teach Kurdish, which places an additional barrier to private practice. In 2016, reportedly up to 40,000 Ahwazi Arab children were denied access to education for failing the Farsi language proficiency test, although Farsi being their second language.14 In 2019, Rezvan Hakim Zadeh, deputy of the regime’s elementary education department, announced that the health assessment plan for pre-school children will include an evaluation of the children’s level of proficiency and comprehension in Persian. Children who fail to pass the assessment will not be able to attend state kindergartens, therefore limiting severely access to pre-primary education for children from ethnic minorities such as Ahwazi Arabs, Turks, Kurds and Balochis who will be directed to an intensive training in the Farsi language.15 16 The lack of access to mother tongue education in primary and secondary schools remains a major challenge in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This access at a young age is critical both to preserve minorities’ distinct cultural identity, and to promote equality of opportunities. A lack of teaching in a children’s mother tongue has reportedly been causing high school dropout and illiteracy rates, notably among Azeri17 and Ahwazi Arab children.18 At the university level, the teaching in and of minority languages was non-existent until 2015. In August 2016, however, participants were able for the first time to choose Kurdish and Turkish languages as majors at the bachelor level.19 Nonetheless, in practice, there has been no elementary, middle school or high school in both the public and private education systems in Iran teaching minority languages such as Turkish, Balochi or Kurdish. As a consequence, opportunities for individuals who wish to access those majors are limited as the teaching of minority languages at school is inexistant. Reports documented a lawsuit against the Ministry of Education initiated in March 2018, for which the Court of Administrative Justice ruled in March 2020 that the state is required to produce and prepare textbooks for teaching literature in ethnic 12 Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee from All Human Rights for All in Iran, Association for Human Rights in Kurdistan – Geneva, Association for the Human Rights of the Azerbaijani People in Iran, Iran Human Rights Documenttion Center, OutRight International, Siamak Pourzand Foundation, Small Media, Impact Iran, 2020, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CCPR_NGO_IRN_42317_E.pdf 13 Radio Zamaneh: https://www.radiozamaneh.com/519191 14 UNPO, https://unpo.org/article/19590 15 ISNA News https://www.isna.ir/news/99031005237/ 16 Dur Untash Studies Center, https://www.dusc.org/en/drasat/3966/ 17 Association for the human rights of the Azerbaijani people in Iran, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19735_E.pdf 18 Center for Human Rights in Iran, https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2013/10/khuzestan-teachers/ 19 Radio Farda: https://www.radiofarda.com/a/f7-students-able-to-select-azari-and-kurdi-for-university/27919663.html 2

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