been increasing school dropout and illiteracy rates, notably among Azeri28 and Ahwazi Arab children.29 There is no readily available information that might indicate the existence of governmental measures and/or policies aiming at providing access to education based on the national curriculum in the native languages of ethnic minorities, in particular in Azeri, Kurdish, Arabic and other languages. 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 severely limiting access to pre-primary education for children from ethnic minorities such as Ahwazi Arabs, Turks, Kurds and Balochs who will be directed to an intensive training in the Farsi language.30 While it is technically possible to file non-discrimination complaints with the administration of justice court, the Parliament’s Article 90 Commission, and Committees for supervisions of implementation of the Law on Respect for Legitimate Freedoms and Citizenship Rights, there is no evidence that judicial actions are taken in response to complaints of denial of fundamental human rights and freedoms on the basis of ethnic, religious, cultural or linguistic identities. B. Children born out of wedlock Considering that illegitimate relationships (where the couple engages in relations without being in a marriage), are criminalised in Iran 31, children born out of wedlock are subjected to discriminatory measures. According to Article 884 of the Civil Code, children born out of wedlock are not entitled to inheritance. Article 1168 of the Civil Code, however, mandates that both parents are duty-bound to maintain their children, without mentioning specific regulations for children born out of wedlock. Children of illegitimate relationships are, according to the director of Iran’s Civil Registration Agency, entitled to receive a birth certificate pending court approval, which enables them to have access to services such as healthcare, education and social assistance.32 Despite this, in practice, birth certificates that are issued to children born out of wedlock leave out the name of the father 28 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 29 Center for Human Rights in Iran, https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2013/10/khuzestan-teachers/ 30 ISNA News https://www.isna.ir/news/99031005237/ 31 Iranian Penal Code (2013), Article 221-232 and 637, available at: https://iranhrdc.org/english-translation-of-books-i-ii-of-thenew-islamic-penal-code/#44 and https://www.refworld.org/cgibin/texis/vtx/rwmain/opendocpdf.pdf?reldoc=y&docid=5447c9274 4