to restrict his wife’s education if he finds it “incompatible with the interests of the family or with
his or his wife’s dignity”.26
In 2014, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Women and Family Affairs reportedly
signed a number of memoranda committing the government to, among other goals, address girls
dropout in Iran.27 The government also reportedly engaged in a number of measures considered
key in the return of almost 34,000 girls to school in 2016.28 Yet drop-out rates among girls in
rural areas remain high as of February 2021.
During the State’s 2016 CRC review, the Iranian National Body for the Convention of the Rights
of the Child listed the main achievements of its established working groups, notably of its
Education Workgroup which include “analysis of the educational issues of the educationally
deprived children” and of its Support and Coordination Workgroup, including “analysis of
different dimensions of supporting children who are deprived of education.” 29 There is no
readily available information that might indicate that such analysis have been impactful in
practice. Additionally, there is no readily available information that might suggest that the
Government has engaged in steps to convince parents and/or husbands to send their girls to
school.
B. Raise the awareness of the public about the importance of education, in particular
among indigenous Arab communities
Article 19 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran contains guarantee of equality for
all the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran, regardless of ethnic group or tribe, and states that
“colour, race, language, and the like, do not bestow any privilege”.
The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has engaged in a number of initiatives
promoting education among children in the country, notably a programme launched in 2014
aiming at addressing causes of illiteracy and identifying children who dropped out of school.30 31
However, high school drop-out rates have been reported among Ahwazi Arab children.32 The
number of Awhazi Arabs living in the Islamic Republic of Iran, while varies in different reports,
26
CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4
Mehrnews, https://en.mehrnews.com/news/104849/Girl-dropouts-to-return-to-school
28
Financial Tribune, https://financialtribune.com/articles/people/51541/gov-t-struggling-to-reduce-dropout-rates-in-schools
29
The Supplementary Response of the (NBCRC) regarding the Concluding Observation on the Combined third and fourth
periodic reports of the Committee on the Rights of the Child for the Islamic Republic of Iran, 2016,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2fCRC%2fCOB%2fIRN%2f23480
&Lang=en
30
Islamic Republic of Iran, National Report, UPR 2019, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/WG.6/34/IRN/1
31
UNICEF 2019 Report https://www.unicef.org/about/annualreport/files/Iran-2019-COAR(1).pdf
32
Dur Untash Studies Center, https://www.dusc.org/en/drasat/2498/
27
3