Homa Arjomand
The coordinator of Children First Now
www.childrenfirstnow.com
homawpi@rogers.com
November 12, 2004  

Open letter to people of Iran1  

Humanity count on your support 

The Islamic Republic of Iran adding an extra pressure on Afghan immigrant in order to push them out of Iran by depriving Immigrant children from free education.   

Iranian government, with the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) approval, has begun an unprecedented offensive against Afghan refugees for the past two decades.

 Over two million afghan refugees are living in Iran for the past 20 years. And they are being treated as a second or third class citizens. The Government of Iran did not provide them a permanent employment permit. Most of them are living in Iran illegally. Almost all of youth have no possibility to attend schools. A fraction of afghan children could use the elementary school. On addition to poverty and homelessness; they have been subjected to the most severe chauvinistic and nationalist attacks on daily bases by “Revolutionary Guards”.     

To add to their miserable situation is the recent inhuman move of Islamic Republic of Iran towards the Afghan children. The removal of free education, as Ahmad Hosseini the director General of the Bureau of Foreign Immigrant shamelessly announced, “the people of Afghan should understand that this was not the time to study, but to go home”.  

According to “ Shoush Childsren Home”, a literacy center for street children in South Tehran , the number of Afghan children has doubled this school year, just because they have nowhere else to go. Most of these children were born and raised in Iran and have never been in Afghanistan . This center offers free education and shelter.  

This is the responsibility of the people of Iran to raise their voices against the violation of children’s right to education.  

If we are for equal rights for all children irrespective of the child’s family’s circumstances then we must demand for Removal of the legal prohibition of educating the Afghan immigrant children in Iran, We must further demand a free and compulsory education for all children under the age 16 .  

We can make this happen by running campaigns in support of afghan refugees/ immigrants, by organizing centers in defend of children’s equal rights to well-equipped, schools that provide a creative educational and social environment regardless of family circumstances.

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