"Death to the dictator," chant young student protesters in Iran 0:28
Abu Dhabi (CNN) --
Earlier this year, Iran flaunted a new patriotic song aimed at schoolchildren across the country.
The song, titled "Salute, Commander," was a tribute to Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Imam Mahdi, a descendant of the Prophet Mohammad who Shiite Muslims say went into hiding in the 10th century. and will reappear one day to end injustice.
“Salute, commander”, says the song.
"I am a child, but the life of my family and mine, everything belongs to you."
In a music video released in Iranian media, thousands of veiled boys and girls are seen singing a live rendition of the song in unison.
Some are seen crying and others are wearing military uniforms while holding signs of former Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US airstrike in 2020.
Critics denounced the song as an attempt to indoctrinate children and instill loyalty to the Islamic Republic.
But Iran analysts say the current anti-regime protests sweeping the country have shown that the regime has failed to subdue the younger generation after more than 40 years in power.
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Protests erupted in Iran on September 17, following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in a hospital three days after being arrested by "morality police" and taken to a "re-education center". ”.
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More than half of Iranians were born after the 1979 Islamic revolution and have known no other regime, but many are now protesting.
School children are protesting their leaders on an unprecedented scale that may be difficult to contain, experts say.
In videos on social media and seen by CNN, more protests now involve school children.
“There is another layer [to the demonstrations], which is the protests that we have been seeing in schools,” said Tara Sepehri Far, a senior researcher with the Middle East and North Africa Division at Human Rights Watch, adding that it is “ unprecedented” for Iran.
The government has said it is sending underage protesters to mental health centers.
In an interview with a reformist Iranian newspaper, Iran's Education Minister Yousef Nouri acknowledged last week that the students had been protesting and the government has responded by arresting them and sending them to mental health facilities.
The establishments are meant to "reform" student protesters and rid them of their "antisocial" behaviors, he said.
Mental health centers act like detention centers, said Hossein Raeesi, an Iranian human rights lawyer and adjunct professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, adding that inside the establishments, psychologists and social workers follow a strict schedule. government and are not allowed to work independently with minors.
"They don't provide psychological and psychosocial support to children," Raeesi told CNN, instead "brainwashing" them and often intimidating or threatening them.
"They come out worse than when they came in."
While the official did not say how many students have been detained so far, experts say a large number of children are at risk as the protests have a large turnout of young people.
Sepehri Far of Human Rights Watch said authorities find it difficult to monitor underage protesters.
While it's easy to criminalize adult protesters, violent crackdowns on children risk generating anger across the country, he added.
Protests in Iran over the death of young Mahsa Amini leave at least 41 dead
Iranians walk past a huge billboard displaying a montage of images titled "The Women of My Land," featuring Iranian women wearing hijab, at Valiasr Square in Tehran on October 13. (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
"brutal repression"
Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of the IRGC, put the average age of those arrested in "recent unrest" at 15 years, state news agency IRNA reported on Oct. 5.
The commander attributed the phenomenon to "neglect of Education".
Rights groups say the crackdown on children has been brutal, with the government responding to child protesters with arrests and even violence.
Between September 20 and 30, the human rights body Amnesty International documented the killing of at least 23 children, it said last week, sounding the alarm over an already violent crackdown that is now targeting children.
According to Amnesty International, “most of the children were killed by security forces illegally firing live ammunition at them”, and “three girls and one boy died after being fatally beaten by security forces”.
“Two children died after metal pellets were fired at them at close range,” he added.
The watchdog said it has so far recorded the deaths of 144 men, women and children killed by Iran's security forces between September 19 and October 3.
Overall, 16% of deaths are children, Amnesty said, adding that the real number of deaths is estimated to be higher.
CNN cannot independently verify the death toll.
On Sunday, a video obtained by CNN from the pro-reform activist outlet IranWire showed high school students in Tehran's Narmak area protesting and chanting "Death to the dictator."
On Friday and Saturday, high school girls were seen removing their headscarves and protesting in the towns of Ardabil and Sanandaj, video obtained by CNN showed.
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Iran also witnessed protests in October by high school students in the northern city of Rasht, as well as in Ghaleh Hassan Khan, a city east of Tehran, according to video obtained by CNN.
The United Nations agency for children, UNICEF, has also called for the protection of children and adolescents amid the protests in Iran.
"The Iranian authorities' brutal and unrelenting crackdown on what many in Iran consider to be an ongoing popular uprising against the Islamic Republic system has involved an all-out attack on child protesters," Nassim Papayianni, a leading activist in Iran, told CNN. Amnesty International in Iran.
After years of forced ideological education, authorities are now facing a particularly challenging generation, Sepehri Far said.
"It's a generation facing them."
Protests in Iran