Since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, various terrorist and armed groups have carried out violent armed acts across the country, resulting in the martyrdom of 23,000 Iranian citizens. Of these, children under 12 number about 500. If we consider children as under 18 based on some definitions, this number rises to about 2,000.
This number is incredibly large and painful for any country and society. By any standard, the death of children—and this significant number in Iran—has no logical justification.
Naturally, we must remember and honor all children worldwide who have lost their lives or suffered permanent disabilities due to war and terrorism. Including the over 18,000 children in Gaza and over 300 Lebanese children who have lost their lives in the past two years due to the unprecedented violence of the Israeli regime and its brutal acts and assassinations. Also, the thousands of children in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Sudan who are victims of wars and terrorism.
In the 1980s and part of the 1990s (Solar Hijri calendar), most terrorist attacks in Iran occurred in public places and were non-targeted (indiscriminate): bombings in crowded places, armed operations in city streets, attacks on gatherings, and sabotage. All these were common methods used by armed and terrorist groups.
Due to the public nature of the incident sites, children, as part of the normal population, were directly exposed to harm.
But that's not all. In some targeted terrorist operations, children were also victims. Multiple reports indicate that groups like the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-I) or the MKO, when attacking homes to assassinate a target, would target everyone present in the house.
Behroung Darvish, a 2-year-old child whose head was cut off after a joint operation by the KDP-I and MKO in 1982 (March), where his mother and grandfather were shot in their home, is an example of such atrocities.
Mohammad, Mahmoud, and Ahmad Fathollahzadeh, three brothers aged 11 to 14, who were shot along with their father in their village home in 1981 by the KDP-I, are another example of targeted assassinations where children also fell victim.
Leila and Zahra Nourbakhsh, who fell victim to the burning of a city bus by the MKO in 1981, were 2 and 3-year-old sisters. One died from burns, and the other suffered severe burns, still grappling with the physical and psychological aftermath.
Masha and Alireza Arjomand, 7 and 10-year-old brothers traveling with their family to Mashhad to visit the shrine of Imam Reza (AS), were victims of a blind bombing in Tehran's Ferdowsi Square in 1986, losing their lives along with their parents. That bombing killed 20 citizens.
In August 1988, when the MKO terrorist group entered the city of Eslamabad-e Gharb, the panicked residents tried to flee. One family's car, while escaping, was shot up by the attackers, and four children of that family—three daughters and one son aged 3 to 14—were massacred.
Alongside these children, Zeinab Kamaei, a 14-year-old girl kidnapped and martyred by terrorists in 1982, is an example of a child targeted deliberately for her religious appearance and spirit by the MKO.
In Iran's terrorist attacks of the following two decades, where Takfiri and ethnic-separatist groups played a prominent role, children continued to be victims of terrorists' violent acts.
Erfan and Alireza Entezami, two brothers aged 5 and 11, were martyred along with their father in a bombing in 2008 (1987 SH) in Shiraz by the group known as Tondar (Monarchist).
Sana Pardel, a 2-month-old infant martyred in her mother's arms in a suicide operation by Jundallah in Chabahar in 2010 (1389 SH), or Nastaran Khosravi, an 8-year-old student martyred in the same incident, are examples of child victims of terrorist acts by extremist Salafi terrorist groups in southeastern Iran.
The attack on the Armed Forces parade in Ahvaz in 2018 (1397 SH) is another prominent example, where several children lost their lives or were injured alongside their families.
The January 2024 (Dey 1402) suicide operation in Kerman—the largest terrorist attack in the country since 1979, leaving nearly a hundred martyrs—was one of the bitterest terrorist events regarding child and student victims. In this incident, over 30 children and teenagers, many of them students, lost their lives. One family alone lost five children under ten.
Besides these children, hundreds more have been injured or physically disabled by terrorist acts. Reza and Mohammad Beit Salem, 3 and 7-year-old brothers who, in 1999 (1378 SH), were hit by a mortar shell fired by the MKO in Ahvaz while riding a motorcycle with their parents, and have lived with disabilities since then, are examples of physically injured children still suffering the consequences.
To all these children, we must add those grappling with the psychological effects of terrorist acts. The victims of terrorism are not only martyred, disabled, or physically injured children. In many terrorist incidents, children who witnessed the violent scenes of bombings, suicide operations, etc., are also victims, especially if they saw a family member or members die.
Direct experience of terrorist and war violence is one of the most severe forms of psychological damage for children. This experience, even if the child only witnessed the event, affects their emotional structure, perception, and psychological security for months and sometimes years.
During the Israeli regime's aggression in (Month) 1403 (May-June 2025?), dozens of the country's military and scientific elites were deliberately assassinated alongside their family members. During this 12-day war, at least 50 children lost their lives either alone or with one or more family members. These actions by the Israeli regime are clearly terrorist in nature, constitute flagrant human rights violations, war crimes, and targeted attacks.
Terrorism and war in Iran have, for over four decades, taken the lives of hundreds of Iranian children, injured or disabled hundreds, and caused various psychological and even economic damages due to the loss of at least one family member for thousands more. Damages that can transmit to the next generation of those children.
The anti-human nature of terrorist groups naturally makes no distinction among children. In their crimes, even children who are in some way affiliated with these groups suffer abuse and violation of their basic rights. Kidnapping, recruiting, and using children in armed conflicts or terrorist operations, deceiving and brainwashing them for use as child soldiers, is rampant among Iranian Kurdish terrorist groups. The fate of many of these children has never been determined for their worried families.
On the other hand, there have been children forcibly separated from parents who were members of terrorist groups due to the anti-family nature of those cults. A clear example is the separation of hundreds of children from their parents in the MKO from the mid-1980s onwards. To increase members' loyalty in Iraq, the group's leader separated these children from their parents and sent them to Europe. Some were given to other families, and some were sent to the streets for deceptive fundraising. Some of these children, upon reaching legal age, were transferred back to MKO military bases in Iraq and exploited as new forces.
Iranian child victims of terrorism and war violence have not only been physical and psychological victims of terror but also victims of complete neglect by international institutions. Unfortunately, the narrative of these children and their demands and rights have not been addressed by international rapporteurs. This may stem from political behavior and the categorization of terror victims worldwide. This nearly unparalleled number of child victims of terror places a serious and heavy moral responsibility on international bodies, especially the UN and its subsidiaries like the Human Rights Council and its rapporteurs.
By Seyed Reza Qazvini, researcher on terrorism and West Asia