A book that monitors Iran's militarization of children from Yemen to Lebanon and Iraq
English - Saturday 31 July 2021 الساعة 04:12 pm
Aden, NewsYemen:
The International Institute for Iranian Studies (Rasanah) has issued a book titled “The Silent Victims.. Iran and the Militarization of Children in the Middle East,” for researchers at the Institute, Ahmad Al-Maimouni and Saad Al-Shahrani.
The book traces the role of the Iranian sponsor of the militias that are active in recruiting children on the battlefields, including the Houthi militia, in Yemen. violence and resorting to extremist methods.
The book came in 150 pages and has six integrated chapters, trying to highlight the phenomenon of child recruitment in Iranian thought, the methods of their recruitment and the institutions based on adopting the ideology of recruitment as one of the means of the Iranian regime since the beginning of the Iranian revolution. To consolidate the creedal concepts that serve his curriculum and support the continuity of his project.
The book focused on what the Iranian militias are committing in Arab countries by involving children in military conflicts as a result of exposing them to death or injuries, and working against the interests of their homelands and destroying their future.
The book opened in its first chapter, “Child Recruitment in Iranian Thought,” by addressing the phenomenon of child recruitment as an inhumane method, addressing the origins and motives of the militarization of Iranian Shiite youth, recruitment methods and motives, and the psychological and social effects that the recruited child endures.
The second chapter, which came in the name of “Hezbollah and Child Recruitment in Lebanon,” was divided into “Hezbollah” as a tool for spreading the concepts of the Iranian revolution, and Hezbollah’s hidden activities in child recruitment, then the impact of international sanctions on Hezbollah and its recruitment operations.
The third chapter, “Iran’s Militias and Child Recruitment in Syria,” monitored the recruitment processes in the Syrian arena, and the use of foreign recruits from Pakistan and Afghanistan. And about the Iranian militias and factions in Syria, the efforts of Iran and Hezbollah to recruit Syrian children, and the soft Iranian policies to control Syrian society.
As for the fourth chapter: “Shiite militias and child recruitment in Iraq,” it reviewed Iraq’s subjection to Iranian influence, Iraqi-Iranian militias and child recruitment; This reality shaped the Iraq-Iran war, and what was referred to in the military literature as human waves; To compensate for the superiority of the Iraqi side in weapons and military tactics, most of the components of those waves were young people and children.
The fifth chapter: “Houthi Militias and Child Recruitment in Yemen,” discussed the emergence of the “Houthi movement” and its impact on the Iranian approach, and the methods of Houthi militia recruitment of children. Then he reviewed the eyewitnesses of cases of Houthi recruitment of children, laying out proposed mechanisms to address the phenomenon of child recruitment in Yemen.
As for the sixth and final chapter, “Child Recruitment and Its Effects Under International Law,” it investigated international law decisions criminalizing child recruitment, revealed the international community’s efforts to protect children, and shed light on Iran’s falling into the crosshairs of criticism from the international community.
